Is the holiday over yet?

Will this weekend ever end? I have been in the house for 48 hours without so much as opening the front door. Why? I dunno. I guess I didn’t want to actually get dressed and venture out to Nutjobshoppingland with the rest of the crazies, like my sister and mother. Instead, I cleaned the area next to my bed and threw away about 15 magazine and kept the other 50. I threw away waaaay more crumpled tissues than I care to think I let drop on the floor. Ew. I vacuumed enough dust to fill a small pillow, double eww. It is so nice to have a clean space, why do I wait so long to do it? Jon cleaned his side of the bed too, as his new collection of gallon size distilled water bottles was getting out of control.

We made the kids clean too. The playroom was unacceptable and needed to be sterilized. I really am surprised when my friends let their kids come over. I can’t imagine they really would if they knew the stuff I found in there. Note to Debbi and Natalie: I know you say you don’t care that it’s a mess, but I do..and that is how it got to be such a mess, by my not caring. I have turned over a new leaf. It’s brown on the other side, but clean. 😀
Let’s just say the enthusiasm that spilled forth from my children to clean the room they spend the majority of their time in was enough to fill a thimble. Seriously, they played and stalled, and laughed and played somemore. We (mostly I) got tired of yelling to clean up, so I walked in there all calm like and said, ” You will stay in here until this room is cleaned. If it is not cleaned, you will spend all of Sat. in your rooms by yourselves cleaning. You will not play, or watch TV, or use the gamecube or computer. Just in your rooms cleaning and spending time thinking about how you want our house to be, which is CLEAN.” After that, they got a little more serious, but they don’t really take Jon or I seriously. Had they not got that room clean, and I mean not just a little picked up. Like able to vacuum and clean surfaces, they would have seen me follow through. I was just up to my ears in letting them get away with whatever they wanted. I spend too much time in my own head and not enough in theirs, helping them, nurturing what they need to grow and be healthy adults who don’t just drop french fries on the floor and walk away.

Anyway, they got the room clean and we made some more rules. Rules I plan to enforce. We try all these different methods of helping them to keep things tidy and put away. Now they are old enough that they can understand and feel the effects of grounding and having money taken from them. I hope it works. Also, a good night time routine is in order. Usually we just tell them to go to bed and they come and kiss us goodnight and go to bed. I think the new routine will actually involve me and Jon getting up off the couch to coach them thru it and get it done. *sigh* I know it needs to be done..just wish I would have done it sooner….

I’m hoping to get the tree up today…that would be nice..actually have the christmas decorations up before the 20th of Dec. Maybe if we put them up before Dec. we will take them down before March! What a novel idea!

I getting ready to head to the store for much needed groceries. Wish me luck! I’m going to stuffMart. Who knows what kind of haggered post Black Friday merchandising I might find.