I don't enjoy cleaning toilets, but it is part of my job as a mom. The part that I dislike the most? Cleaning them again in the same 24 hour period! I'm pretty sure we are shareholders by reason of quantity and frequency of purchase of Clorox wipes. These are very handy, and easy to use. They're relatively child friendly considering the kids can't really make a mess spraying something or trying to wring something out. What I haven't figured out though is how they can use so many and clean so little!! They disappear just about as fast as toilet paper. Now, there are 7 of us that use the toilet, so that is a fair amount of toilet paper in a day, but seriously, a roll a day per bathroom? I always wondered where the little brown cardboard tubes went, and then a went to take a shower and saw one or more of them decoupaged to the shower walls in nice streamer-like strips. And of course that's not all I found in the shower. There was a nice sticky/greasy ring around the tub and not just one, but two empty shampoo bottles without lids, a shaving cream can with remnants of foam and crusty white "drips" all down the side of the can, and a tiny little bar of soap on the floor of the tub. Well, at least whoever showered here last is clean and soft!!! OK, back to the Clorox wipes, because that's where i started...I had ONE brother growing up, and he was nine years younger than me. I know I had to help clean the bathrooms, but maybe my job was never the toilets, because I DO NOT remember this many YELLOW pools. I think my boys try NOT to hit the water. This can be no accident! Occasionally? Because it's 3 am and it's dark? Maybe, but on the back wall? All over the lid? That was my adventure today. One of the boys just "cleaned" them two days ago, at least I thought he heard me say "TOILET"...there's nothing that even sounds like toilet to get it confused with.
In other news...my kids eat well. They're not afraid to try new things, weird things. Don't get me wrong, they love hot dogs and pizza, chips and mac and cheese, but they wolfed down Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts tonight like they were candy coated, milk chocolate chickens! The cranberry orange rice pilaf they "didn't care for". They love salmon and gnocci, bran chicken in peanut sauce, spicy chilli and mixed salad greens with fruit, nuts and other veggies. Not typical I know. Maybe this is my tradeoff for peeing in things. Let me elaborate so that it is completely understood. My children don't just have accidents during their potty-training years. They have "on-purposes". These are the times they see how full they can get the trash can instead of using the toilet and flushing; when they wonder where the vent leads, so to help figure it out, they pee down it; when they want to see how fast their pee hits the ground from the loft of the barn; when they wonder if they can pass off a bottle of pee for a bottle of Mountain Dew; when they think that we should just put a bathroom downstairs, because that's where they play, so the middle of the rug will do, and of course when it would just be much more efficient to get out of bed and pee in the dresser drawer than to walk across the hall to the bathroom. This isn't exclusive to the boys however. Mattie doesn't want to be left out, so she finds her places to squat too. Buckets are much easier for her than pop bottles! WHY??? Is it because they're not picky eaters? I have friends that are dumbfounded by this. They have boys, and they've never heard of such a thing! Their kids won't eat anything that touches each other or tastes like something other than peanut butter and jelly or pizza though. Sometimes I'm not sure if i think this is a fair tradeoff. I guess since I love to cook though, and more importantly since I love to eat, I'll just be glad it's not both.
In another thought (I do NOT have a one track mind...I can hardly stay on the road, much less in one track), I do have a husband, who by the way is a world-class dad, a very hard worker in his career field, and loves me very much. That being said, I got a big kick out of the happenings of last night. As we finished up dinner, he lovingly said, "Don't do that" to my starting to clear the table, "I'll clean up the kitchen tonight." "Twist my arm", I thought to myself, "OK, thanks". He went to work clearing the table and filling the dishwasher and I went downstairs to work on some other projects. He came down to see how everything was going and then off to bed. When I came back upstairs, I discovered that his offer must have only consisted of making sure the dishwasher was loaded and the table cleared. The sink was full of those dishes that didn't make the load, the stove still held the pans and pots, crumbs were not found on the dining table, but elsewhere? Many. Shoes were still needed to cross the floor, and peanut shells littered the countertop. Complaints? NO...just a reminder that men and women have VERY different definitions of words, concepts, etc. My clean kitchen means you can eat off the floor, his clean kitchen means there is room to eat again...when that load of dishes is done washing!
Feeling badly that that may have sounded much too much like I was ragging on my beloved, I think I will stop here. I could go on for many more sentences the humor in our differences in opinions of how something should be done, but it's probably much to my benefit not too.
One more word about toilets...we do have a lot of bathroom talk in our house. Doesn't everyone? My children haven't learned that flushing isn't optional, and it is even worse when the baby, and yes they've all done it, learns to crawl into the bathroom and check out that cool water, crystal clear, yellow or muddy brown. Yuck!!!! Oh, yuck! Trust me, it only ever happens once, but at that point, the Clorox wipes have a whole additional purpose! I once had a conversation with another mom whom I had just met, and she made the comment that she was sooo tired of wiping poop off the walls...I knew she and I were going to be good friends!
In other news...my kids eat well. They're not afraid to try new things, weird things. Don't get me wrong, they love hot dogs and pizza, chips and mac and cheese, but they wolfed down Pecan Crusted Chicken Breasts tonight like they were candy coated, milk chocolate chickens! The cranberry orange rice pilaf they "didn't care for". They love salmon and gnocci, bran chicken in peanut sauce, spicy chilli and mixed salad greens with fruit, nuts and other veggies. Not typical I know. Maybe this is my tradeoff for peeing in things. Let me elaborate so that it is completely understood. My children don't just have accidents during their potty-training years. They have "on-purposes". These are the times they see how full they can get the trash can instead of using the toilet and flushing; when they wonder where the vent leads, so to help figure it out, they pee down it; when they want to see how fast their pee hits the ground from the loft of the barn; when they wonder if they can pass off a bottle of pee for a bottle of Mountain Dew; when they think that we should just put a bathroom downstairs, because that's where they play, so the middle of the rug will do, and of course when it would just be much more efficient to get out of bed and pee in the dresser drawer than to walk across the hall to the bathroom. This isn't exclusive to the boys however. Mattie doesn't want to be left out, so she finds her places to squat too. Buckets are much easier for her than pop bottles! WHY??? Is it because they're not picky eaters? I have friends that are dumbfounded by this. They have boys, and they've never heard of such a thing! Their kids won't eat anything that touches each other or tastes like something other than peanut butter and jelly or pizza though. Sometimes I'm not sure if i think this is a fair tradeoff. I guess since I love to cook though, and more importantly since I love to eat, I'll just be glad it's not both.
In another thought (I do NOT have a one track mind...I can hardly stay on the road, much less in one track), I do have a husband, who by the way is a world-class dad, a very hard worker in his career field, and loves me very much. That being said, I got a big kick out of the happenings of last night. As we finished up dinner, he lovingly said, "Don't do that" to my starting to clear the table, "I'll clean up the kitchen tonight." "Twist my arm", I thought to myself, "OK, thanks". He went to work clearing the table and filling the dishwasher and I went downstairs to work on some other projects. He came down to see how everything was going and then off to bed. When I came back upstairs, I discovered that his offer must have only consisted of making sure the dishwasher was loaded and the table cleared. The sink was full of those dishes that didn't make the load, the stove still held the pans and pots, crumbs were not found on the dining table, but elsewhere? Many. Shoes were still needed to cross the floor, and peanut shells littered the countertop. Complaints? NO...just a reminder that men and women have VERY different definitions of words, concepts, etc. My clean kitchen means you can eat off the floor, his clean kitchen means there is room to eat again...when that load of dishes is done washing!
Feeling badly that that may have sounded much too much like I was ragging on my beloved, I think I will stop here. I could go on for many more sentences the humor in our differences in opinions of how something should be done, but it's probably much to my benefit not too.
One more word about toilets...we do have a lot of bathroom talk in our house. Doesn't everyone? My children haven't learned that flushing isn't optional, and it is even worse when the baby, and yes they've all done it, learns to crawl into the bathroom and check out that cool water, crystal clear, yellow or muddy brown. Yuck!!!! Oh, yuck! Trust me, it only ever happens once, but at that point, the Clorox wipes have a whole additional purpose! I once had a conversation with another mom whom I had just met, and she made the comment that she was sooo tired of wiping poop off the walls...I knew she and I were going to be good friends!
