Cleaning the Teenager Rooms or,

A.k.a. Dumpster Diving in Your Own Home.
Last week I was still trying to get out of the doldrums, not worrying about my kid every minute of the day and checking the email every 10 minutes to see if he had written, and I got the cleaning bug and attacked his room and the teenage daughter room. Here's a sampling of what I found:
School notebooks from junior high.

Tons of extension cords.A basket from 1988.Trash, tons of trash....enough trash to start my own landfill! I don't think garbage can and teenage brain commute. I have been looking for these for weeks!The sacred family backpack. Purple color for Mesa High, which has been passed down from sister to sister through the generations. Sorry girls, it's in the garbage.

Enough money to start my Alaska travel fund.Old gaming systems (this one was in daughter's room......)Now I finally know where the knee brace went.

And I created enough dust to cause 500 people an allergy attack. But now I feel cleansed and purged and we'll see how long it lasts.......until the next cleaning frenzy begins, or I need to find something that is missing.

Bleary-Eyed

So all you young moms out there are waiting for the day when you can sleep all night? Tired of waking up every other hour to tend to babies and children who need a mother's touch?
Don't hold your breath.
Let me illustrate by sharing my story from last night.

I'm an early-to-bed, early-to-rise sort of person. I like the mornings.
I'm just weird that way.
So by 9:30 pm, my eyelids are drooping and I'm ready for dreamland.

Only to be awakened a couple of hours later by person-who-will-not-be-named who needed a bath because he was hot and sweaty and sore after playing basketball.

Hit the snooze button.

Only to be awakened a short time later by person-who-will-not-be-named who came strolling in after arriving home from whatever activity he was participating in. Of course he is immune to the midnight curfew because he is over 21. And then to relax he needs to check his Facebook and emails for at least an hour.

Hit the snooze button.

Only to be awakened by person-who-will-not-be-named who begins the round of middle of the night bathroom trips.

Hit the snooze button.

Only to be awakened early the next morning by princess-who-will-not-be-named who needs the perfect hairdo for the day and it must begin at 4:30 am in order to perfect the "do."

Forget the snooze button and get up.

So, I'm just sayin'.....

A Few Housekeeping Items:

Let me set the record straight.

I hate mopping floors.

It hurts my back.

I have never met a mop I liked.

Swisher, Switzer, whatever that thing is called...only lasts 2 minutes on my tile.

And that Shark steam thing....pffft....don't waste your money on that.

I'm really spoiled and I used to have someone who would come in and mop my floors every week.

But not anymore.

I do get someone twice a month to do the dirty deed-for which I am eternally grateful.But there are those times in-between that it must be done.

Like when you've had three or four toddlers running through the house.

So I'm trying to figure out how come I let TL talk me into 5 miles of tile in my house. (you can't see it in the photo but it goes allll the waayyyy down the halll....)

Second.....remember this?My sagging undermount sink?

So TL calls my nice contractor who redid our house five years ago for a recommendation for someone to fix it. Let me say first that he is a really, really nice man and he did a fabulous job on our house. It's just that I don't like some of his subs.

Because when I call the sub, a woman answers saying, "This is ______'s cell phone."

I nicely explain the problem, wondering if I can make an appointment for him to come and fix the problem.

"Well, I'll take your name and number and we'll call you back when we're in the neighborhood."

Yeah, right. Three days later and no call.

I thought these were hard economic times.

So I'm going to be devishly happy when they finally call and I announce to them that I have found someone else to fix the problem.

Hmphhh...

So Help Me....I'm Trying to Have Patience...

But my kids at home are driving me crazy right now!!!

I know-this photo is enough to frighten anyone!

No school.
No jobs.
Having to ask them 5 times to do something for me, and then they get annoyed and wonder why I'm nagging them!
Sleeping in until 10 am.
Except for the one who has to get up at 5 am to get to swim practice (she gets herself up)
But then I'm awake until 1 am the night before waiting for the oldest kid to get home.
And it's only June 4th.
Nice.
Don't tell me to ground them. More than half of them are legal adults.
These guys are good kids, really........I'm telling myself this 100 times a day....
But then I see this:
Or this:
Or this:

Gosh, dang-it, how can you get mad at that cute face?

And Steve just got accepted to BYU for the summer.

So what's a mother to do?

{sigh}

Weather, you Mock me

Last year, we were braving the cold and rain to attend Bubba D's graduation. It had only been a few days since TL had been released from the hospital, so I was very stressed about having him outside in the cold and rain to watch graduation. The decision was made to hold graduation inside, for the first time in 22 years! History has repeated itself. Who would have thought we would have rainy, chilly weather at the end of May AGAIN! However, last night those brave souls did not have the luxury of attending graduation inside but toughed it out with their attendant umbrellas. I thought of you often!

Last week it was 107. My mind just cannot get around the fact that it will be 107+ again, probably within a few days. I cannot express the depth of my loathing for the hot summers here in AZ. There is just no escaping it, unless you leave the 85--- zip code! I try and try every year and bravely face the oven-like temperatures in my car, the wave of heat that envelopes me every time I open the front door, the never-ending sounds of the AC cranking away-that's all you can hear outside in the afternoon-no birds, no nothing-just AC running. I keep a stiff upper lip until about the first of August, and then I crumble. Because for most people the first of August signals the time when summer is winding down-the knowledge that there is only one more month of sizzling summer heat before the blessed respite of fall.....Not us.

For here in the desert Southwest we have summer until Halloween. Seriously. The highs continue to average in the 100s usually until mid or late October. Our little children start the first day of school fresh and new in the morning and come home red-cheeked, sweaty and exhausted. School time is supposed to be the time of fall leaves, plaid skirts and sweater-wearing in the evenings. Not here.

So it is that in August, I finally lose it. When the high is 100 at 10 pm with the low being around 90-ish at 3:00 am.....well, I'm not so brave anymore and I just want to sink down in my air conditioned bedroom and not move until it gets below 80 degrees. I try to bribe myself every year out of the summer doldrums by promising exciting things like....I can plant pumpkins the first of August! It doesn't usually work.

So it is when we have glorious 70 degree wet weather at the end of May, I want to shake my fist and shout, "Weather, You mock Me!"

Riding the Guilt Train

I got a phone call from one of my daughters a couple of days ago. The gist of the conversation was this: "Mom, I am I going to be guilted into doing this? (she was referring to someone else-not ME!)

The next day I had an intense conversation with my husband regarding how guilty I always felt about the things I didn’t do or couldn’t do. He was absolutely stunned at my feelings. I guess men don’t feel guilty like women do.

Women feel guilty about EVERYTHING.

I feel guilty when my kids have cavities at the dental visits.
I feel guilty when I don’t accomplish everything on my list, even though I have already done about 700 things that day.
I feel guilty when I don’t serve nutritious meals to my family.
I feel guilty when I have to say no to something, and sometimes I will say yes at the expense of personal time or other responsibilities, and then be really annoyed about it.
I feel guilty when I take some personal time.
I feel guilty when I haven’t visited all the ladies that I felt I needed to visit in one week-even though I already visited 3 that week.
I feel guilty when my cleaning ladies come and my house is a disaster.
I feel guilty that I have cleaning ladies.

I even feel guilty when it's someone else's fault....sheesh.

Frankly I’m sick of feeling guilty.
I am taking a vow to try to get off the guilt train.
And figure out what is appropriate guilt.
And what is just negative behavior that I need to change.
Any ideas out there???

The Good News & The Bad News

Which do you want first? The Good or the Bad? Ok.....The Good...

The potatoes have sprouted! Yippee! ( just checked the heat wave lettuce-it's sprouted too!)

The Bad?
I can't get ANYTHING DONE with these !@#$%^ kids around during Spring Break!
(not pictured-Boofus with her friend, also lounging)

When do I get a spring break?????