Juggling Kids...

That's what it has felt like this past week - I had a staff retreat the end of last week - I was gone Thursday, Friday and Saturday. While I was gone the kids had a total of 6 people caring for them at different times. The time leading up to me leaving was a crunch to get all of my responsibilities done before I headed out of town - a lot of helping hands went in to allow me to do that too.

I came home Saturday evening and less than 12 hours later Steven left for a week-long business trip in Minnesota. So I am facing a week of single parenthood. The week has started off busy. Sunday is my work day - so I am very thankful that the grandparents attend the same church or I would have gone crazy trying to get all the kids where they were supposed to go and doing my job of making sure all the classrooms were running smoothly and all the teachers were where they needed to be.

Sunday afternoon I started tackling the house. I had told myself that while Steven was gone on this trip I was going to go through all the nooks and crannies and start pitching things. You know, things that take up valuable storage space....things we never use....things that hang around, just hoping that we don't identify them as the trash they really are. My folks came with their little truck and took away a couple of loads of books to recycling. I took a break after that stretch and continued to chip at it late into the night last night. I had to work quickly because our trash pick-up is tomorrow morning, but for the most part as I am typing this out our curb is filled with a good 75% of what I was hoping to go through.


I still have a couple of closets and cabinets that I hope to get to before tomorrow morning...but if it doesn't happen I will still feel good about it all. Now I just have to clean up the messes and the yucky dead critters all this cleaning has left behind. The majority of the stuff came out of our basement laundry room and garage - perfect breeding grounds for spiders and creepy crawlies...dirt + unmoved junk + damp dark rooms = pests + heeby-jeebies.

So the kids have been very cooperative so far. I took them on errands with me this morning and bought them a round of chocolate milk for allowing me to get so much done. The best part is after tomorrow, the next couple of days are free and clear to do fun stuff - in a clean house no less! I think Steven will be pleased. I really did it to enable us to better use the space we have...but Steven tends to hold a bit tighter than I do - which is why I tackled this while he's gone. Oh, and by the way, reason #45 Isaiah is soooo much like his daddy. It made him cry to see all the old college books and dilapidated folders and such go into the trash! The sight of stuff he would never use going to recycling broke his heart. *Sigh*