4 little bits

Things I have started but not completed this week because 3 children like to follow me around and talk to me ALL THE TIME:

1. 6 blog posts. 1 for every day of the week. Anyone with children knows how difficult it can be to have a creative and complete thought when offspring feel the need to hover behind your shoulder saying "Whatcha writing? Can I have a marshmallow? What's this on my arm? Is it a booger? Why can't I eat it? But I'm hungry! We have NOTHING to eat! I don't LIKE apples and carrots! WHY are you yelling at me, Mommy? I was just asking ONE QUESTION!!" followed by tears. Call me crazy, but it's not conducive to positive energy.

2. Cleaned the office/schoolroom. Holy, holy, holy mess... Ok, here's the thing. Imagine ALL of the schoolwork from your child's school days multiplied by 3. Imagine that not only the students but also the TEACHER tend to stack their papers on their desks to be filed away "later on". (Later on being a mystical non-time that exists in said teacher's silly, little brain). Pile up several products to review and the paperwork that goes along with each of those items. Stack all of that on the computer desk, beside some unpaid and paid bills. Pepper this entire conglomeration with random coloring pages, artwork, pencil shavings (seriously) and Boy Scout stuff and you will have the disaster that is our family office/schoolroom. Sounds like a really great way to encourage positive learning flow, eh? WELL.... I began to clean it yesterday. In one of my common (but not "often") bursts of organizational energy, I started in one corner with the intention of making my way around the entire office! My heart was in the right spot, and I made progress, but forgot that we had soccer practice that night and had to abandon ship midst desk dumping #2 (Evan's desk. Corinne's work table is spotless! The new curriculum is categorized on the shelves and so pretty! I separated the colored pencils, markers and crayons!!). So there are piles of finished math and English surrounding me as I type this, and I haven't even TOUCHED Justin's stuff or my desk yet. I may need something stronger than coffee to knock this room out...

3. Gardening. Heh. My Mother in law sent some seeds for the kids to plant which was great! Starting with 3 kids, we all dug in the dirt and began to pull the weeds from the old pots. When I turned around to start passing out seeds to insert, I noticed that Corinne had wandered off to the swingset. So, Justin, Evan and I planted the pots in the backyard and then headed to the front to finish off with some climbing flowers for the front step. Somewhere between the back patio and the front, I lost Justin to the excitement of the basketball hoop and was left with only Evan. He half-heartedly pulled a few weeds with me from the front pots but was dancing all around, trying to be super-fast. "Do you want to go play with your brother?" I asked. "Thanks!" he shouted and dashed away. I was left with 3 dirty spades and about 8 pots to water. Those poor seeds... I hope they make it this year. We usually forget about the gardens right around July, when we can't take the humidity and turn on the air conditioning...

4. I forget what else. Which is fitting, because that's the whole damn theme here, isn't it? Seriously, I apologize for my absence on all of your sites and appreciate any pity remarks I may get on this post. I am not one with my blog or myself right now. I definitely can't wait until summer break...