This peaceful time is nice after an exceptionally busy day yesterday. Lindsay had left on an early (like pre-dawn early) flight to Ponca City to take a look at a company, so I was on my own to get our kindergartener, who was quite groggy after her three day weekend, to school. I was feeling extra proud of myself when I had all three little ladies buckled into the car at 7:19 AM. Granted, only one person in the car was not wearing pajamas, but only that person actually had to get out of the car.
By 10:00, I'd safely delivered Murphy in the Middle - along with her carpool boyfriend - to preschool, and Wright and I had gone grocery shopping (for the third time in 24 hours.)
[Must. Get. Organized.]
Once we got home and I cleaned up the breakfast dishes and made a fresh batch of fruit fly killer (seriously? There has to be some sort of freakish infestation going on this year!), I occupied the Itty Bitty with a large drawer of random plastic items (water bottles, mis-matched lids, popsicle molds, etc...) and got to work on last night's dinner.I'd spent a lot of time over the past couple of weeks searching for crockpot recipes that were healthy (as in, did not involve just throwing cans of stuff into the crockpot) and finally came across a really great website. Now the recipes here do require a bit of time in preparation, but I've found it's pretty manageable to get the heavy work done in the mornings and let the crock do its job till dinner time.
The smell of this simmering all day was ah-ma-zing.
While the Tiny One cat-napped and I cleaned up the kitchen, again, I was startled by the loud laughing sound of The Creepy Monkey. You know those freaky stuffed monkeys that they sell in airports that laugh and wiggle when motion is sensed by their freaky little heads? Yeah, well thanks to the in-laws (shout out Pops and Misha) we are the owners of one, and I could hear it making all sorts of sounds from the playroom upstairs. I headed upstairs to turn it off, half afraid of finding a knife-wielding lunatic waiting to murder me (what else would have triggered the sensor?), but rather than finding a pscyo, I stumbled upon an image that made me feel psycho.
My view as I entered the room...
What the...
How on earth did this happen?!
So maybe every now and then I pay my girls $1
to go play alone (together) in the playroom...
What did I do upon seeing the epic mess? I turned off that damn monkey and headed right back downstairs to wake up Wrighty. She and I then folded a couple loads of laundry, made the beds, and tidied the girls rooms. At this point, I decided I'd like to take a shower, a bold aspiration for sure. I set her on the bathroom rug, opened up the bathroom cabinet, and hopped in the shower. Ten minutes later, I stepped out to see this:
It was worth the sacrifice.
A few minutes later, Murphy arrived home from preschool, and my wet-head and I greeted her out front. I noticed how precious she looked in the sweater that her grandparents has given to Carter when Murphy was born and asked her if I could take a quick picture.
Clearly, she was thrilled to be photographed.
The next hour involved feeding Wrighty lunch, navigating Murphy's tantrums, and wishing I'd had time to dry my hair as I could feel it frizzing up. At some point, the senseless whining must have worn Murphy out, and she requested to go to nappy. With both her and Wrighty settled, I stepped around the mess still all over the bathroom floor, dried my hair, and put on just a dusting of makeup. I had about 15 minutes before I needed to walk to the bus-stop to get the big girl.
It was then that I remembered the situation upstairs in the playroom. I debated letting the girls handle it, but every now and then I like things to be cleaned-up, really cleaned-up, and actually put in their places. Always one for a challenge, even against myself, I decided to set the timer on my phone and see how much I could get done in 13 minutes. When the 'doggy barked' (Murphy has set my phone to bark when the timer goes off and often asks if the 'doggy barked' when wondering if time is up for this or that), I looked around and was quite pleased with my work.
Not too shabby.
A place for everything.
And everything in its place.
This mad-dash clean-up was actually pretty energizing (and, honestly, I broke a sweat in those 13 minutes) and a real mood-booster! I quickly walked to the bus stop, nearly being killed by the acorns that were harshly flying at my head due to the ridiculous winds, and greeted my sweet girl. She hopped off the bus and instantly sat down on the sidewalk and began feverishly writing.
She said she was writing
'important things to remember when she's a grown up'.
(Literally, she was writing her bus number.)
The rest of the afternoon/evening involved a relatively mellow Murphy, Wrighty showing the beginnings of a cold, and Carter trying out a new gymnastics center. As I drove her home in the pitch-blackness that is 6:45 pm (thank you, Time Change), we were both giddy at seeing snow falling for about ten minutes. Once all the kiddos were tucked in for the night, I finally cleaned up the mess in the bathroom floor (thankful that this time a bottle of cough syrup was not involved in Wrighty's bathroom floor entertainment) and enjoyed a late dinner with the hubby. I served the meat sauce over whole wheat penne and fresh parm, and it absolutely tasted as good as it smelled.
Maybe better.
Sometimes, it's the most ordinary of days that turn into the most memorable,
or in my case, blog-able.