Confession #5: My house is a mess most of the time.

I've heard people call it lived in. I try to keep it clean (some days better than others) but, as any supermom knows, it's a constant battle.

Let's start with the living room, the main room of the house. We'll pick up the toys. I pick up most of them; Big Brother picks up a few. Baby Brother helps by playing. Vacuum. (Kids giggle and run around.) Big Brother dumps the toys boxes back all over the floor while hunting for a toy. Baby Brother begs for a snack. Cracker crumbs fall under his chair. When he's done, I try to brush the crumbs off of him and onto the table or the linoleum but miss a few. They end up on the carpet along with the crumbled up cracker I didn't realize was in his hand. Less than an hour after we cleaned up, it looks just as messy as it was before we cleaned up. (Needless to say, we only bother to vacuum once a week unless it's messy enough that it tempts Baby Brother to eat crumbs off the floor.)

Next, the kitchen and dining room. Talk about a lot of work. This usually starts at breakfast and continues throughout the day. We start breakfast. I'm done before the boys so I start unloading the dishwasher.

By some miracle, I get a stack of plates put away before I hear, "I need more milk!"

I pour Big Brother some milk before starting to put away silverware. Get that half done when I'm interrupted again. "Ah! Ah!"

I give Baby Brother some more cereal and finish putting away silverware. I start putting away glasses when Big Brother exclaims, "Sit down, Mama!"

My children encourage me not to do the chores. It's tempting but we already read a story and played for a few minutes so I continue with the dishwasher. (Besides, if I give in that early in the morning, no chores will get done! That said, if they've been gone a lot, I sit at the table with them until they're done.)

Big Brother is done and needs help washing his hands. I finish the dishwasher. Baby Brother finishes and needs help getting down. They play. I begin loading the dishes I rinsed the day before into the dishwasher. (I've spent the last couple of weeks trying to get it so I'm able to run the dishwasher at night. You'll see why this becomes difficult...)

I start rinsing the dinner dishes left from the night before, bottles, and breakfast dishes. Seeing Baby Brother start eating food under his chair, I pause with the dishes and grab the broom. (He barely finished eating but those crumbs are just too tempting!) Now that Baby Brother is safe from the floor contaminated food, I finish filling the dishwasher. I start the dishwasher then empty the drying rack. I hand wash any items that need hand washed.

Excited I think, "Success! Now I'll be able to keep up with the dishes today!"

In the morning right after breakfast is usually the one time of the day when I have energy to get chores done and the boys aren't demanding something. (All their toys seem new first thing in the morning.) Then my kids become more needy, plans interrupt, and I get tired.

I fight with the kitchen chores for awhile. Snack. Rinse the cups after snack. Wash the table. Various chores and activities with the boys. Oops! Forgot to sweep! (Save the baby from the dangerous crumbs!) Lunch. Put the lunch dishes in the sink. Wash the table. Try to get the boys asleep in the same room close to the same time. Exhausted. Take a nap while the boys nap. Rinse the lunch dishes while the boys eat snack. Put the snack dishes in the sink. Wash the table. Play with the boys or other afternoon activities. (Usually the park. Sometimes the pool.) Those crumbs! Find the broom! Make dinner while at the same time entertaining the boys. Eat dinner. Leave the dinner dishes on the table. Leave the dinner cooking supplies where ever they were while making dinner.

The next morning, place the dinner dishes in the sink and wash the table. Begin the dishes cycle again.

I HATE DISHES. Washing dishes has always been my least favorite chore. (Yes, I'd rather clean the bathroom than wash the dishes. I don't do it in that order because the dishes are more demanding. But it's tempting...) After being Supermom for almost three years, I despise dishes. They are the enemy.

We started eating lunch at the free lunch program at the park. Awesome program because it makes it easier to make sure my boys get the fruits and vegetables they need in a meal. And, the boys love going to the park. Even better, no dishes!

Add in cleaning the bathroom, the bedrooms, the yard work, and, don't forget, the laundry my house is a mess most of the time.

Now, I should pause and explain why my house is often a mess even when my boys are gone. I've thought a bit about it and have decided it's a mess because I like it that way. Well, I don't like the kitchen mess. Unless I'm gone when the boys are gone, the kitchen gets caught up right away. But being home alone in a living room with all the toys put away reminds me that I'm home alone. It reminds me that my boys aren't home with me but are at their dad's house. And it's hard being home alone. No bubbly boys babbling about this and that. No boys begging me to tickle them or read to them or play with them. No giggling between brothers.

So I leave the mess for awhile. It reminds me how lucky I am to have such wonderful boys who add "life" to my otherwise quiet life.

I should also pause and point out that I could easily keep up with these chores. It would just mean less quality time with my boys. And quality time with my boys means more to me than my never ending list of chores. Because I'm a Supermom.

Here's a a picture of our living room right now:

We have too many toys. One of the items on my to do list is to go through the toys so we can get rid of some and store others. (My mom used to store toys and bring them out at different times. Made our old toys seem new.) Also, now that Big Brother is almost potty-trained and he has the basics of "cleaning up" down, it's time to get the habit of "cleaning up after ourselves" going. He understands the concept but it's time to start making it happen. As of this moment, nightly tidying just became the start of his bed time routine.

No kitchen pictures. We had lunch at the park and ate out tonight so the kitchen's looking better than usual.