Rise and Shine
Every evening I try to clean up the day’s clutter and go to bed with a reasonably clean house.
Some mornings my efforts at cleanliness are already wasted before I have even woken up for the day. I’m talking about the mornings when Brooke and Caroline decide to scatter toys, art supplies, and food everywhere before I’ve taken the time to fully open my eyes, get out of bed, and face the day. On those days, I wake up to this:
It’s sort of hard to fully appreciate the magnitude of the mess just from these pictures. In the pictures, you can’t tell that all the tiny pieces to checkers, Chinese checkers, chess, and mancala are scattered all over the living room. You also can’t see the crumbs from the goldfish, the crackers, and the EIGHT granola bars ground into the counter, floor, and couch. Also realize that although the girls have made messes that were much worse, they did all of this damage in less than thirty minutes. They work fast. When they’re making messes, that is. Cleaning up is a completely different story.
However, strangely enough, I prefer waking up to the above mess than to this:
Yes, you can see a wonderfully clean living room, but do you know what you can’t see?
Brooke.
You also can’t see the front door that was wide open on this particular morning. I had an escapee on my hands.
Luckily, after a few minutes of searching I found Brooke passing the time at a neighbor’s house playing with his toys. He was moving that day, and I think Brooke heard all the commotion and decided to investigate. When she found her friend’s door wide open with toys in sight, she couldn’t resist.
And I couldn’t resist giving her a stern talking to and placing a child safety door knob cover on our front door. Luckily she hasn’t figured out how to work those things yet, but have no fear – I’m sure it will make another exciting story for the blog when she does.
August 21, 2011 @ 9:23 am
Wow, how scary! I’m glad she was safely playing with her friends toys and I hope that never happens to you again!
August 21, 2011 @ 1:40 pm
You certainly can’t be upset by the big mess greeting you in the morning when your girls are playing so sweetly together with all those tiny Mancala, Checkers and Chess pieces.
I feared the day of Brooke escaping before you got up was coming. I’m glad she didn’t make it too far.
August 21, 2011 @ 9:22 pm
AHHH!! Oh my. That happened to us once, and it is absolutely terrifying. I am so glad that she was okay. It makes you feel so awful.
PS – we wake up to the same mess!! 🙂
August 22, 2011 @ 10:02 pm
What a girl!
August 26, 2011 @ 2:00 pm
James learned pretty quickly that when you hang on those door knobs they bust right off, but maybe you got a fancier version. However, they stay together nicely when you apply duct tape around them, cutting holes to allow you to grip the door handle. 🙂 Good luck.