The State of My Union

The state of the union in my home state of Wisconsin is rather chaotic right now. And yes, my mother and father (who both work for the state) have been out protesting. I don't really know enough to form a complete opinion about what's going on there. But, I can tell you what's going on here, in my house.

And the state of my union is rather chaotic these days too! The words, "I've totally lost control" have been uttered more than a few times in the last few weeks!:) When Eli was a newborn I remember thinking that it was going to be hard to keep the house in order. Well, those newborn days pale in comparison to what we are experiencing now! Yes, having two very active, curious, and energetic children has made it hard to keep my "union" clean and in order. Hard is an understatement actually- it's been near impossible. The facts are in and I just have to face the realization that my two children can destroy a room faster than I can clean it! Let me share with you a few examples.

A few days before Valentines Day the kids and I were working on a heart ornament craft involving string. Lily had a lot of fun (and did a great job) cutting lots of little pieces of red, pink, and white string for our ornaments. We dipped the pieces of string in glue and molded them inside heart shaped cookie cutters. It actually worked, but it was a little hard for Lily (and she didn't love the glue all over her fingers). Eli did enjoy playing with the glue but that was about it for him. So, we did make three ornaments, but that was it. And we had LOTS of string left over. And that's when I decided to do the dishes. The kids were playing in the living room and I knew they were likely making a mess, but I had no idea what I was in for! When I finished the dishes and turned around I found that Lily had taken the string/yarn and wrapped it around and around the walls that make a circle from our kitchen to our living room (see pictures above)! In doing so she even trapped Joe (who was working in the basement). It was all pretty funny actually. Oh, and both of the children had also taken all the little pieces of string and flung them throughout the living room like they were confetti! I did get the dishes done, but the rest of the downstairs was trashed!

And then there was this morning. Apparently Eli put a wooden block in the toilet the other day (which we just found out today) and when Lily had...umm...done her business this morning and went to flush the toilet things did not go as they should. She yelled for me and I ran into the bathroom to find the contents of the toilet and water spilling out all over the floor. Big time yuck. Thankfully Joe was working in the basement again and he was able to run up and turn off the water. Needless to say that after that the entire bathroom NEEDED a complete scrubbing.

And then just as I had all the cleaning supplies in order Lily managed to lock us all out of the bathroom. Thankfully Joe was able to fix that too! I pretty much spent the whole morning going back and forth between the bathroom and the kids. I would clean the shower, play with the kids, clean the toilet, get the kids a snack, scrub down the bathroom walls, break up a fight over who gets to hold the stuffed bunny, etc...

And after a whole morning the bathroom still isn't finished! The bathroom is right in between the kids bedrooms and thus I can't clean in there when they are napping (which they are right now). So by the end of the day I will have a sparkling clean bathroom that would make my dad proud, but the rest of the house will be trashed! Oh well, such is life right now. Such is the state of MY union. But I know that it's just a stage and that someday my house will be clean again. And until that day I'll just do my best to clean here and there as I go and appreciate the two little monkeys who are making all the mess (because they are absolutely worth it)!