My Sister VS the Boys Room

My sister is the complete opposite of me. I have written about DP before, about how she is the neatest, most creative girl I know and I am, well, totally different than her.

I have been working on really really cleaning the house. Fall deep cleaning. It's not going well. I am pretty sure I am going to 'fall' over from not getting very far...did you catch that joke? Yah, I am that overwhelmed...and under caffeinated right now!

The boys room is, well, a fire hazard. Literally. For those of you who have followed the blog awhile, recall I pulled all the boys toys out of their room in hopes to get them cleaning what they have so they could get the toys back. It seems to have backfired. Who ever knew that clothes and blankets could wreck such havoc in such a small portion of time?

The room overwhelmed me. If I imagine myself as a young boy, I would see no end in sight to cleaning it. I'm not exaggerating, it was that overwhelming!

So I called DP. Told her I was in need of her help in a bad way. She graciously agreed to come to my rescue. And I frantically cleaned my downstairs so that when she did come over, the house would at least look 'presentable'. But I still hadn't touched those boys rooms. At all.

In defense of my sons, their rooms are small. You walk through S3 and S4's room to get to S1 and S2's room. But, the fact is, they haven't made their bed in forever (once,when camping, S3 told me he was concerned. Every time he had looked at my mom's bed it looked the same (because she made it as soon as she woke up). He was worried she wasn't sleeping in her camper and wondered when she got her sleep. Guess I need to work on making my bed too...), while I thought they were taking care of their clothes they were just piling them (get this) BEHIND the BEDROOM door!!!!! They had piles in the closet, they had piles on the dressers, they had piles on their beds. Their dressers were empty.

S3 and S4 have the cutest truck bedding. They decided they liked the sleeping bags we take camping better. So all those blankets were everywhere.

S1 and S2 have saved every single solitary school paper and drawing and every imaginable piece of garbage a boy could carry home from school and church. They also have every shotgun shell they find, every cool stick they see in the woods and every broken hat they have ever worn out.
See, I take their toys away and they just have sticks to play with.

Anyhow, I bring my sister upstairs and she sees the landing and I see the horror in her eyes. I know the landing is bad but it's not that bad. She sees S3 and S4's rooms and she is speechless. She sees S1 and S2's room and she is gasping for air, holding on to the side of the door jam trying to speak but unable to.

“I'll make coffee,” I offer weakly. I made the coffee strongly.

“This will take more than an afternoon,” she states and sips her coffee. She has a steely resolved look to her eyes as she heads up to the rooms. It's as if she wonders if this room may swallow her up but is determined to beat it back.

I am thankful she didn't bring along baby Backup.

“If these were my boys, well.....let's just say they would be grounded till forever and I would take every little thing out their room and make them just have beds and that's it. I'd even take their clothes and make them keep them downstairs for you to keep an eye on and I would get rid of everything they have.”

Perhaps we should warn baby Backup to always keep a clean room.

I suggested we take pictures so I could blog about this. She gave me 'the look' and said “I don't think you want people to know about this.”

By the time the bus rolled in about two hours later, the beds were made, there was a mountain of clothes to get rid of, a mountain of clothes to wash and bags of garbage to be thrown out. I was amazed at the progress we had made, this job would have taken me a full entire day! Mess doesn't mess with my sister! S1, who once thought it would be great to live with his aunt and uncle and baby Backup has declared full loyalty to his family after the stern talking to from his aunt.

I sheepishly followed my sister down the steps where she marked on my calendar what day she would return and I stumbled over words of “I will keep cleaning until then...”.

I would be lost without my sister. Really truly. She is amazing.

I am sure there will be much more on this story, check back next Thursday. But for now, all four boys went right up to bed without a fight. S3 and S4 actually went to bed an HOUR early. I think we will have to work harder on this keeping their room clean thing. I am open to all suggestions.