Kid Cleaning

Last week the girls had fall break and before we busted out the fun stuff we had to clean. "Mawwwwmmmmm..." they whined. Til they got cool jobs. Hannah got to take the couch cushions off (which she loves to do anyway) and vaccuum the couch and the cushions, any way she liked in any order she liked, as long as the cushions got put back the right way. Skylar got a spray bottle full of vinegar (my new favorite non toxic cleaning product, by the way) and got to do all windows and mirrors. Every mom on the planet knows how much fun a spray bottle is, and when you're 10 and get the big kid responsibility of having a real job with the spray bottle, well that's all the better. While they HAPPILY did these chores I cleaned out the entire refrigerator and washed and PUT AWAY (that's always the hard part) two loads of laundry. Then the girls made their beds and did their regular morning chores and the rest of the weekend was fun. Yay!

Not Really Swearing...

Let me preface this by saying there are certain things we don't say in our house: stupid, shut up, hate, just to name a few. We also obviously don't use "cuss words" because those are words that hurt people's feelings. Having said that, I heard from Hannah's sunday school teacher that they were discussing wisdom last week and he asked if any of the kids knew what that was. My Hannah, who herself is very wise for her age, raised her hand and said "That's what all the stupid people don't have but everyone else does." The teacher was laughing so hard he almost had to leave the room...

To Clean or Not To Clean...

I came across an article from Sept. 14 on the MSNBC site talking about all the Superbugs that make our kids sick nowadays. One theory is that we're "too clean." Yes germs cause illness, but often so do the chemicals we use to get rid of those germs. I struggle with this because I LOVE TO CLEAN. It's an illness, I know! But I love when new cleaning products come out, new cleaning gadgets, and although you can't always tell this is an obsession of mine because my 2 girls and I live in a small house that dirties easily, there's nothing better than a rainy day and the kids at school so I can scrub stuff. Seriously. And remember my sewage issues from a few months ago? I was so happy to bleach my basement when that was over! And yet... I want to be green, we don't do shots or antibiotics in our home, we don't even really do perscriptions (I literally think the kids have had 2 perscriptions TOTAL, between the 2 of them, in the last 10 years). So why subject my kids and myself to the crap in cleaning products when plain old soap and water is probably just as good?! I need to be delivered:)

Sleepovers

First of all, I'm not like other moms and I get that. I'm perfectly able to accept the fact that when my children go to other people's houses they may hear or see some things that they wouldn't hear or see here; it's like I have to "deprogram" the kids when they come back to me! That's fine and I don't freak out about it. But last night one of them went to a little girls house and came home this morning after I'd dropped her off last night, met the mom, did a quick once over of the house to make sure it didn't look or smell wierd, etc:) She gets home this morning and over the course of the morning I learn that "Her mom let us jump on all the beds." And "We didn't have breakfast, we just ate popcorn and fruit snacks." And "No, we didn't brush our teeth last night or this morning." And "Yeah, we were awake at 5:30 this morning and played and pretty much ran the house with no adult supervision." NOW. I realize it's Saturday morning, I realize it's fun time because it's like a little slumber party, and if just one or two of these little things occur that's normal under the circumstances. But after hearing this list of 5-6 things in just the last half hour I'm thinking perhaps that's the way they run their house! Again, fairly innocent things, no one's in danger or anything, but it doesn't sound like there are too many boundaries. In my house the kids have a say and a voice and all that, but the grown ups are still in charge. What do you guys think? I'm hitting the "Tweens" and I'm starting to panic:)

Jen Should Be A Guy

I've been called many things, but this was a new one. I was recently told by a guy friend of mine I should be a guy, because I know so much "guy stuff." For example, I've seen all the Star Wars AND Lord of the Rings movies, and I like 'em. I like heavy music. I just got done reading Dune. I like Stanley Kubric movies. And more to the point, I GET INSANE ABOUT THE IDEA OF MY BELOVED CUBS GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS! LIKE JUMPING UP AND DOWN ON MY COUCH C R A Z Y. My friend Brandi and I were saying Saturday there's no amount of money we wouldn't spend to see a Cubs World Series game live at Wrigley Field. Seriously. S E R I O U S L Y :)