This will be a bit of a grump post. Life has been pretty hectic lately. Birthday month has ended (yay) and its school holidays (mostly yay) and its spring (winter bugs be gone!) but I am still experiencing the aftermath of all of that. Its all gone a bit crazy.
I'm trying, in some small way, to reclaim my house. Mainly children clutter. Not the children themselves you understand, its probably not a good look to try and get rid of the children, but their 'stuff'. Its incredible how far and wide it spreads. Sometimes I wonder if it replicates at night. There are random toys that have some sort of meaning and order for someone (and god forbid you move them). There are the precious and agonised over drawings, paintings and colouring-ins that are waaaaay to important to put in the recycle bin unless I do it in secret and it get emptied straight away. You so don't want to see the look on C's face if she finds her papers in there. There is lego, which is such a fabulous toy for a 7 year old but entirely unsuitable for a 8 month old who likes to put everything in his mouth. There is half eaten sandwiches discarded at whim and I find them under the coffee table while searching for the remote. Nappies are dropped in places that I come across several hours later because Little Miss A has taken it upon herself to change her own nappy. Total craziness.
And not counting the washing pile which is known as either Mt Foldmore or the Foldmore Range. Its a range if it covers more than one room apparently ;).
I started yesterday with the toy area. I resorted things into their respective boxes and parts - cars, potato head, dolls, kitchen, animals, duplo, dress ups, barbies, tools. Within moments of almost finishing, there were a few leftover toys that needed to be put away and I hadn't got the vacuum out, Miss A discovered all the things that she hadn't been able to see due to the chaos and it was all over. Granted, she played happily there for ages but it looked like NOTHING had been done. Total futility.
Today I did the lounge. Well to be fair, Mr D and Miss C got themselves motivated and cleared all of it up and then got a turn with the vacuum cleaner. But now there are little pockets of things that have mushroomed their way in since then.
The other thing that I struggle with is the constant interruptions. I fill the sink with hot soapy water and prepare to decrease the pile of dishes. Within minutes, sometimes just seconds, the big kids get into a fight, Miss A wants a drink of milk or Mr I wakes from his nap. So while I get to do nice things like feed my children, mediate their differences thus hopefully giving them skills for the real world and a nice wake-up snuggle with my baby... my dishes are still waiting for attention. Its a bit like how the moment I get on the phone the kids need my instant attention even thought they've been playing happily for the previous 20 minutes.
And now, 8 months down the track of having a baby and everyone giving me advice to not worry about it and let it go, its now like this is what happens when you drop the ball a bit and go easy on yourself... it ain't pretty and its hard to fix.
Now I know that I wrote a few posts ago about embracing chaos... and I think I can still do that, but I'd still like to know where everything is at the same time. I think maybe I have a limit as to how much chaos is good for me and now I've found it.
Tomorrow I hope to get the kitchen sorted, bake cupcakes for church and maybe wipe the windows and sills. I reckon the kids will love helping with that one.
