My Dream Date: Trespassing.

Okay, so actually there wasn't any sign, so we weren't technically trespassing.  

No sign, is a good sign right? 

It was a great opportunity to try out our new camera.

Don't worry, we didn't go in.  

I may be a trespasser, but I'm not stupid.

So eerie and creepy.  It really makes me wonder what happened here.  It was probably something mundane and stupid, like bankruptcy and vandals, but I could easily imagine something tragic and perhaps a little mysterious and supernatural.  

 I knew you were all just dying to see inside.

 It was a bit anticlimactic and disappointing, and yet, proved mysterious after all.

And definitely creepy.

Mystery of the foul smell: solved.

Luckily I had my husband there to protect me.  Isn't he such a hottie?

Church Mice

Once upon a time, there was an old lady whose job it was to clean the whole church. One day, as she was working, she  came to one room that was particularly messy.

"Oh my!" she said. "This room is so messy, and I'm already so tired, I just don't think I can face this one right now. Perhaps I'll come back later," and she closed the door to go work on other things.
Meanwhile, some little mice who had been hiding in the closet said to each other, "That nice old lady is always cleaning and working so hard to make this place look nice. We should do something special for her.  Hey, I know! Let's surprise her by cleaning this room for her.  That will make her so happy! She'll be so surprised!" With that, the mice began cleaning as fast as they could.


Soon after that, the little old lady came back.  She opened the door slowly with a few jiggles of the handle (because the church was getting so old and the handle didn't always work properly) and when the mice heard her, they ran back into the closet and hid.
"Hmm, maybe this room isn't as messy as I remember," she said, "but it's still too messy to face right now."  She looked around listing all the things that needed to be done, but it was still too overwhelming. "Oh dear, I still don't think I can face it yet. Maybe I'll save it for last," and with that she left the room and closed the door behind her.


Once the coast was clear, the mice came out, and began cleaning again, paying special attention to all the things they had heard the lady mention.  They worked quickly and quietly.
A little while later, the old lady came back --once again struggling with the door, and the mice had just enough time to hide again before she came in.  This time the lady definitely noticed a difference in the room.

"My goodness!" she exclaimed. "Something strange is going on.  I'm sure it was dirtier than this when I was in here before. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I wonder what will happen if I leave it just a little bit longer..."  She noted out loud the few things that still needed to be done, and tried to remember them just to make sure she wasn't imagining things, and then she slowly backed out of the room and closed the door.


The mice warily came out of hiding.  They giggled to themselves to think that the lady didn't know it was them. They finished tidying up, until the room was spotless with nothing on the floor and everything in its place.  There were a few things that didn't belong in the room, but belonged elsewhere in the church, and the mice quietly opened the door and set those things in the hallway. However, when they went to close that stubborn old door, "BAM!" it slammed shut and made a terribly loud noise.  The mice squeaked in fright and hid in the closet again.


The old lady who had heard the noise came to investigate.
"What on earth was that noise?" She said to herself as she opened the door.  "Oh!" she exclaimed, dropping her dust rag in surprise.  "What's going on? Who has been cleaning in here?" She looked around in disbelief.  "Perhaps it's magic?  No... there's something here, in the dust... mice footprints!  It was mice who cleaned this room for me.  How kind!  I will do something to let them know how grateful I am."  And she quickly left the room.

The mice crept out of hiding, and found the dust rag lying there.  They decided to use it, for good measure, and just as they finished up they noticed that the old lady hadn't closed the door behind her, but in fact she was peeking in at them with a kind smile on her face.  They squeaked and quickly ran and hid, but she didn't chase them.  She quietly walked into the room and gently set something down saying softly, "Thank you little church mice!"  Then she turned and left, closing the door behind her.
When the mice finally dared to come out, they found a plate full of wonderful treats, perfectly fit for some helpful little mice.

THE END

This is a game we played as children with my mother or older sister playing the part of the old lady, and we got to be the mice. Why a church, and why mice? I have no idea. I'm not sure where the story came from, it may or may not be original, but I've definitely taken liberties with it as I've written it down here.  After all, it was a little different every time we played (i.e. sometimes the lady left a vacuum instead of a dust rag, or both).  Anyway, I have fond memories of this game. I recently introduced it to my own children and it's been a hit!  I told them the story, and then the first time I had their dad do it with them as a mouse to show them how it's done (they are 4 and 2 after all), but since then they've shown themselves capable of cleaning their own room all by themselves!

Of course, as with all cleaning tricks and games, the novelty will soon wear off; but if it works for even a little while it's worth it right?  I'll take whatever I can get.

I'll post other ideas to make chores fun as we try them.

Do you have any other fun cleaning ideas?

Progress

Not bad for a phone camera eh? Still, a new one is on its way. Yay!

Do you ever have those times when your life feels like you're walking up a 'down' escalator?  Or that for every two steps you take, you slide backwards one?

We went to the sand dunes for a small family outing.  It was fun, but man those last three yards to the top were about the end of me.  It was super steep, and with every step there was a mini avalanche that would bury my feet and shoes and I'd find myself standing just about where I started.  If I hadn't had the baby strapped to my front, I probably would have tried crawling on all fours.

Luckily, my wonderful husband (after already pretty much carrying the two boys to the top) was there to hold my hand and support me as we struggled together to the top. He didn't just cheer from above, or even just reach down and pull me up to join him.  He was right there next to me helping me, as he struggled to keep his footing as well, and together we made it.

Since our third child has joined us and I've been dealing with health issues, as well as possible post-baby emotional issues, life has felt like an uphill struggle.  Whether it's housework, or callings, or lifestyle changes, or keeping up with three kids ages four and under... my life often appears as an impossibly steep mountain that threatens to bury me with each step.
Luckily, I don't have to do it all by myself.
I've been so blessed to have a wonderful husband who isn't above helping me with what some may see as "my job."

He could come home from work and say, "Well, I've done my job, time to relax!" and scorn me for not doing my job very well because the house is messy or dinner's not ready right when he comes home.  Or he could see me floundering and piously think, "If we could only trade jobs for a day, I'd show her how it's done..." and maybe blitz the house for good measure to make it look clean (getting angry when it doesn't stay that way for very long) all the while acting like a martyr.

No, I am proud to say my husband is truly amazing. He is right there in the trenches with me.  He cleans, does laundry, gets up with the children and feeds them breakfast so I can sleep in, watches them so I can go grocery shopping alone, and he even reads them scriptures and puts them down at night.  (Sheesh, this is making me feel a little inadequate.  Just to be fair, I am usually feeding the baby at those times, and I'm the one getting up in the night with the kids).  He has even come to grips with his original misconceptions that once something is cleaned it will stay that way forever, and learned that 'my job' is an unending one.

I would feel really inadequate if I thought he did all those things better than I do, but he's so thoughtful and considerate of my feelings that he occasionally makes mistakes, like breaking dishes and setting stains and putting the kids in mismatched (if not each other's) clothes, just to make me feel better.  :)

Someday, I'll get back on top of things, and be able to help him be the amazing English professor that he dreams of being.  However, I'm so glad that he chooses to put his family first.  --and to all those students waiting for their unit one papers...  just be patient, he's a lot more lenient when he feels like he's neglected you, so no more whining.

Hey you.  Happy 6th anniversary.

What I would do if I had 5 hours to myself, ...and the house was already clean:

... oh yeah, and I had gotten a full night's sleep. (Is that too much to ask?)

(stipulations include things like, no use of technological devices except maybe  for "how to"s and recipes (--aka no social stuff or blog browsing), this is all stuff I could do without having to leave the house (except for the DI run) --we're just assuming that I already have all the ingredients/materials on hand, and finally that I am not allowed to feel any guilt about neglecting my family.

What I should do:

-Cook freezer meals for the next two weeks.
-File the important documents into a easy to carry folder to be put near our 72 hour kits.
-Assemble 72 hour kits.
-Sort the kid's 'too-small' clothes into boxes for storage (and actually put them in storage, not a heaping pile of boxes in my room).
-Make homemade laundry detergent and homemade baby wipes.
-Organize the closets/garage/drawers and make a DI run.
-Make a quiet-activity bag to keep my kids happy at church/on Sundays/during quiet time.
-Make more lists and plans.

What I would like to do:

-Play the piano, perhaps make another CD for my parents.
-Write in my journal.
-Read a book from beginning to end.
-Soak in a hot bath, give myself a facial, cucumbers and all, and top it off with a pedicure and perhaps a manicure as well.
-Try something new, like painting with watercolors, or making jewelry or something.
-Get crafty, and try a bunch of things I've seen on pinterest.

What I would do if I ever followed through with my good intentions:

-Write thank you notes to people.
-Email each of my siblings separately -not a form letter.
-Print out pictures of my family and frame them to hang on the wall (and to give copies to the grandparents).
-Make birthday cards for all my extended family for the rest of the year (and actually mail them)


Okay, so if I thought about it long enough, I could probably come up with more amazing things, but I can't, so there you have it.

Gosh I'm boring.

By the way, we lost our camera, so no picture today (we won't mention the fact that I could use an old photo from my computer... I'm feeling lazy).    Luckily our tax return will furnish us with a new one, and I am super excited. More about that later.