If You Clean a Kitchen

I swear I have cleaning ADD.  I cannot seem to completely finish a task today.

I picked up some toys in the boys' room, I put away a few clothes in my bedroom, I wiped off the counters and started putting things away in the kitchen, including a basket of dirty clothes that one of the kids brought down, which reminded me that I should start a batch of laundry, and the microwave really needed to be cleaned out and I needed to take a shower before mid-afternoon... but on my way to the laundry room I stepped on all sorts of sticky nastiness and a fine layer of crumbs adhered to my feet making me reach for the broom for a quick sweep.  Except that there were umpteen puzzles strewn about the floor and I didn't have the patience this time to wait for Q to pick them up, so I put them all back together myself.  After the "quick" sweep turned into digging out the shop vac (which happened to be set to blow instead of suck... which equaled more mess), and sweeping/vacuuming almost the whole downstairs, I remembered I never started that batch of laundry.  I stopped mid-vacuum to start the laundry right away because it was almost noon and I must use power during my off-peak hours, dagnabit.   Whilst I loaded the washer and checked pockets (I loathe checking pockets.  I really do.  But I loathe cleaning out melted crayon even more), I started making mental checklists of my tasks for the day... finish a poster for Scouts, take that shower, finish editing some sessions, clean some parts of the house (there's no way I'll get it all cleaned in one day, let's be realistic) and print a gift for a friend.

Sometime during my head monologue, Miss B who was home sick, informed me she felt better and wanted to go to school.  I hurried and threw some clothes on while she changed Q and we jumped in the van.  I pulled up to the school, only to realize I had NO shoes on!  Wow.  There was nothing to be done, but run in... bare feet and all.  Good thing we live in a warm climate, so that was no matter.  I grabbed Q, swallowed my pride and we walked inside (very quickly) so I could sign her in.  A lady who was walking up at the same time we were, opened the door for me and said that it looked like I had my hands full.  I thought to myself, "Yes, I have my hands full and my feet bare."  So embarrassing.  I survived and ran home to tackle my scatter-brained plans for the day.  The whole day really reminded me of the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books, ie...

If you clean up the kitchen, you'll notice the floor needs to be mopped.  But to mop the floor, first you'll need to sweep.  And after you sweep, you'll see that the carpets need to be vacuumed...but in order to vacuum, you will have to fold and put away the clean laundry that's piled in baskets on the floor.  When you go to put away the clean, folded clothes, you will notice (to your horror) that the children's bedrooms are inexplicable disasters.  Which bugs you.  You start to put away a few things, resulting in the cleaning and organizing of the rooms.  You just might find a dirty cup or two that you return to the sink for cleaning.  When you get back to the sink, you'll remember you never finished cleaning the kitchen and that the floor really needs to be mopped.

So I started the day out like this...with sunshine in my soul and many good intentions.  (Except I was wearing my pj's and my hair was not done).

And I ended it like this.  You know, nuts.