Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Spring Break for Us, Spring Cleaning for the Boys

We are on spring break this week. If you ask S3 he will tell you we have spring break for TEN days. Every day we have TEN days. I know that when he gets called back to school, he will protest, informing me that his teacher assured him he had TEN days of no school.

It IS going fast.

Today, Wednesday, it is rainy. Not the huge storms from Tuesday but just regular rainy day. Tonight it is supposed to get very cold. It's pretty much a total indoor type of day.
As was yesterday.

And today they were told TODAY the rooms are going to get cleaned. I have told them for weeks ahead of time, “If the upstairs isn't cleaned by spring break, we will be cleaning it during break until it gets done.”

I know, I am a thrilling vacation planner.

So all day yesterday I worked on cleaning. I cleaned my little itty bitty room at the top of the stairs that desperatly needed spring cleaning. I worked on helping the boys get started, and they started...to getting more things out.

This morning that all ended. I took the bags and just began picking things up and throwing them away. It is amazing how fast all the sudden four boys and a friend kick it into gear then.
Truly amazing.

Now, I would never ever throw away prized possessions. I even save those teeny tiny legos. But they don't see or notice that. They just see moma, no smile on her face, tossing their beloved (though totally forgotten) things into the big white bag. For dramatic effect, I would then toss the bag OUT THE WINDOW. You should have seen their faces.

The upstairs is getting clean.

It's a beautiful thing.

And tonight, when we are done, when the carpets are cleaned and they are all tucked into their just washed this week earlier blankets and sheets watching October Sky and eating chocolate chip cookies, oh, they will be thankful for a clean room. Whether they realize it or not.
More (much more fun) stories coming. This is just where we are at the moment.

2 comments:

Karen said...

When I first saw the title to this post I thought I'd hear about how your boys willingly & cheerfully helped you tackle spring cleaning. (And I thought I'd end up feeling bad, because that is NOT how my boys tackle any kind of cleaning.) So, it was refreshing to read that the only help you got was them getting MORE things out...until you used some good, old-fashioned threats that strike terror in the hearts of boys...mama throwing stuff away! :) Sounds more like my house now.

Denise said...

Katen, I have writte a few blogs about cleaning with the boys. Scan my blog for one from this August or September. I think it's called Beware of Monster Moma. It's scary. It's embarrassing. Something tells me I will have many more of these sorts of stories......sadly. You are NOT alone out there!