Cleaning, flooding and Star Wars

In the middle of moving the couch to
vacuum in and under.

 
 
 
Friday, February 5th-



Half of the tote is broken toys and trash. The rest is all the
cardboard and random stuff from the storage room.

Sleeping beauty (photo taken by Cora)

This has been quite a day. The girls still have runny noses, so I did a yoga video at home and then went right into deep cleaning the basement. I moved the couch and vacuumed under it and in it, something that doesn't get done often but was very needed. I also went through all the toys and got rid of LOTS of stuff that the kids don't play with anymore. After cleaning and vacuuming the family room, I straightened the boys' room (eww) and vacuumed it. Then I moved to the storage room. The storage room is basically my favorite place, but it has been very neglected for months now. I ended up with a HUGE pile of trash and cardboard to recycle. I LOVE getting rid of things that are just taking up space! The girls watched several Bubble Guppies, Molly's current favorite, but once Molly fell asleep, Cora had my phone and took some interesting pictures. I deleted about 50, but kept some.

Photography brought to you by Cora

Cleod's bucket/hose contraption.
Smart boy!

Once the boys were home from school, I decided to run to the gym and burn some more calories. Within 15 minutes, I got a call from home that the basement window was flooding. This is not abnormal because there is a drain spout right by the family room window well and with the snow melting it rushed into the window well. I told them a few things to do and Cleod decided that he could handle it. I wasn't too worried and stayed at the gym. I checked on them every 10 minutes or so and they had it all taken care of so I finished my workout. When I got home I found that it was A LOT more water than I had thought and that Cleod had even needed to bucket water out of the window well. He told me how he gave everyone jobs so sometimes someone was watching the window to make sure the towels were taking care of the water and someone would be playing with Molly. Sometimes one of the kids would be sent to get new towels or would take a wet towel to the bathtub. I am SO PROUD of the way they all handled the situation and I am actually really glad that I was gone so that they could work through this mini-crisis.

Cora being very patient with Molly, who
sat on her during the movie for a good 10 minutes.

For date night, I made a yummy dinner and we stayed home with the kids to watch our newly purchased Star Wars I, The Phantom Menace. (Yes, we are on a little bit of a Star Wars kick lately.) It was fun to watch with the kids. Molly and Cora didn't stay interested the whole time but the boys enjoyed it.
I feel very grateful for this time in my life. For so many years I have had a baby to care for and now that Molly is almost three and the boys are all getting older, we are just really enjoying different things about our family. Hearing about how great the kids worked together today helped boost my confidence in myself as a mother. Maybe I'm not screwing up as much as I thought! :)