Preparation

I spent all morning cleaning.

I tackled the playroom.  Okay, so it’s not a playroom, so much as a play CORNER of my dining room.  But it’s got a cute little rug down, and shelves along the wall that I bought and assembled.  Tables that have seen better days, and so, so many toys.  I’ve got legos and lincoln logs, barbies and ponies.  Doll houses that don’t fit well anywhere.  Magnet dolls and bingo games, more stuffed animals than any one house should lay claim to, and whole picnic’s worth of tea party accessories.

I also had a half-eaten snack bag of cookies, three spoons, one pill that Sam swore he swallowed, 36 playing cards, and eighty seven thousand broken toys.

I’m on a new organization kick – there’s a voice in the back of my head telling me that now’s the time.  Now I have to get everything efficient and in control, because once Tuesday comes, I’ll be WORKING.  Even though I’m only working 10 hours a week for the next three months, even though I’ve got another month before the older two are home for the summer, I feel as though I’ve got this weekend to get my whole household under control before everything changes.

It took me three hours (with breaks for blogging and bragging that my piece is up on the Mid today). And it took less than two minutes for Julie to celebrate the newly organized and pristine area by promptly dismantling all of the stacking, all of the cleaning and creating her own system. A neighborhood, if you will, of adjoining dollhouses, cars, and figurines, and she’s over there happily talking to herself and singing.

Let’s be honest – come Tuesday morning, my house isn’t going to be any more (or less) organized, efficient and put together than any other day.  But my kids will still be happy, they’ll still have far more toys than they need, and they’ll still spread them out, create worlds and imagine lives in spite of the mess.  Just like they always have…