Quick! Someone Come Over! My House is Clean!!

Right now, my entire home is clean and organized. You read that right. Well... minus a few places a guest wouldn't see..like the basement and my closet. I try to maintain the cleanliness of our house, but with 3 kids and tons going on, it's just not always easy to keep it neat and tidy. I hold on tight to the saying about making memories being more important than cleaning messes. That's the reasoning I give myself when I step on inexplicably pointy toys and sop up spilled chocolate milk with the discarded pajamas I found on the floor.

Really, it's our kids who are at fault. Clean spaces attract them like birds to a just washed car. They instinctively know how to make a mess of it in 60 seconds flat.

Brand new box of crayons? Box torn apart and half the crayons broken or with their wrappers ripped off. (That drives me nuts. I'm slightly OCD about the paper on crayons. They need to remain intact.)

Newly reorganized cabinet for the kids cups/plates/bowls and Landon wants the green cup all the way in the back.

200 matchbox cars put into storage boxes and placed lovingly on shelves. Owen decides he needs a car, but can't remember which one- dumps both boxes on the floor.

Eliana, bless her little heart, she's into everything now too and enjoys putting everything in her path, into her mouth. My new pastime is finding objects to pick up before she reaches them. It's her favorite game. That, and throwing food from her highchair.

Anyway, back to my clean house. The dining room table has been cleared of all the school work, receipts and random mail. Landon's desk drawer is neat and tidy. Beds made. No dishes in the sink and the dishwasher is clean. (Which means the kids will be getting their lunch on paper towels today.) Remote controls for the TV, DVD player and cable box are lined up according to size. I even have flowers in a vase sitting prettily in the middle of the now clean dining room table.

I am pleased with myself as I look around, hands on hips, giving a little nod, like Mary Poppins after she magics a room clean. Now I have to leave with the kids, so that the house remains this way.