I've been told that people are enjoying the things I've posted on Facebook, the random snippets of our every day life. I guess if there's an audience I can try harder to share.

Tonight's installment: There's no crying about laundry!

This afternoon, due to our busy schedule (including a leisurely lunch at Panera) Abby skipped her nap. She really wanted to watch TV, but I felt she needed to earn her TV time.  I gave her the job or sorting a basket of laundry, and told her when it was sorted into each person's pile, then she could watch TV. "Do I have to put mine away" she asked? "No, just make every person a  pile, we can put it all away later."  This is a daily job that the girls do. Usually they work together, but it was well within her ability to get it done.

I went downstairs and about 10 minutes later she came down and said it was all done and could she please watch her TV? Absolutely.

Simple enough, right? I never checked on her work.

The big girls came home, Chris came home, we re-set for our evening. The girls I went to piano lessons, Chris went to his Alverno class, the girls and I enjoyed a fancy dinner of hot dogs from the grill, eaten on the the deck, life was grand.

As I cleaned up dinner, I sent the girls upstairs to put their piles of laundry away, shower, get pajamas on, etc. Chris called to say his class was out early and he was on his way home. While I was talking to him I went upstairs to make sure the girls were doing what they had been told to do. I found Katherine sitting on the floor of my room, appearing to be doing absolutely nothing. I asked, (in an impatient way) why she was on the floor, and she exclaimed, "Because look, there's all this laundry under your bed!"

ARGH!

"Chris, I'm hanging up on you because apparently Abby sorted the laundry by shoving it under our bed, I have to go."
"Wait" he said " It's OK, just have Maggie or Katherine go under the bed."
"WHAT? WHY? HUH?"
"Please don't look under the bed, it's all OK, Maggie and Katherine can do it."

At the time it sounded like he knew that the laundry was there, and he had helped put it there, and it wasn't Abby's fault at all. (And also that he might perhaps be hiding something for me under the bed)
It was rather confusing, and in hindsight, I should have investigated my sources better. Instead, I called all 3 girls, not in the nicest way and made it clear that the laundry needed to be put away STAT. Katherine started crying that it wasn't fair, and I snapped, "There's no crying about Laundry - just do your job!"

Within 10 minutes Chris was home and I snapped at him something along the lines of "Who puts clean laundry under the bed?"

He was totally confused. And in the next few minutes all became clear. He had not put any laundry under the bed. But he didn't want ME to look under the bed. Abby confessed that she had gotten tired of sorting laundry today, and hid the laundry by putting it under the bed. Katherine was right that it wasn't fair- she hadn't done anything wrong, she had actually saved us all from finding the laundry a week from now (or longer?)

There were tears, moaning that it wasn't fair, and whining that it wasn't actually lying, and oh the drama, woe is me.

And then there were apologies, hugs, snuggles, and bed.

Really, it was just another night at our house.

My goal for this morning is to do a major grocery run.   Of course that's no easy task when you're as distractable as I am.
I just had one of those "If you give a mouse a cookie" moments (you know that book, right?)
Here's how it looks in my house:

If you give a Mom a trip to the grocery store, first she'll stop to make a list. When she stops to make a list, she'll check the fridge. When she checks the fridge she'll open the meat drawer, when she opens the meat drawer she'll be reminded that it is stuffed full and generally gross.  When she investigates the overfilled and gross drawer, she'll end up taking everything out. When she takes everything out she'll find a layer of grime on the bottom so thick it refuses to come off. When the grime refuses to come off she'll take that drawer to the sink and scrub it. While scrubbing the drawer she'll dump a large amount of water on the floor. When she dumps a large amount of water on the floor she'll curse under her breath, but then realize, "Hey, at least that part of the floor is now clean!"

WIN!

And then she'll go back to making the grocery list that started it all.......

So after I had that fun time, I finally opened the Grocery app on the computer (Our Groceries - love it!) and found, much to my surprise, that the list already had 2 items.  Nestle Quik and Honey Nut Cheerios.

Eureka! Maggie put things on the list! Maggie remembered that I showed her how to put things on the list. Maggie came close to finishing these 2 items while making her breakfast today and put these 2 items on the list!  Maggie followed through, took responsibility, and avoided the drama of her whining that we were out of something and my replying that I didn't know we needed it because it .....WASN'T ON THE LIST!

Oh happy day!