Random Tuesday

I'm sitting on my patio, coffee in hand, staring at my screen, wondering what on earth to write about.  Yep, it's one of THOSE days.  There's so much going on, yet nothing.  That make much sense?  Probably not.  But, there's stuff I will be writing about that's going on or in the preparations to be going on, yet it's not the right time to write about those things.

We're going to Silver Dollar City tomorrow.  Yet, I'll write about that on Thursday AFTER we've gone.  Friday is Independence Day, and we have some stuff planned, but I'll write about that AFTER that's happened.  We've got our trip to Branson coming up..again, something I'll write about AFTER it's happened.  Cause, it's really hard to write about stuff before I've got to do it.

Today?  Well, today I'm getting stuff ready to go to SDC and I'm going to pick up my niece who's going with us, but that's about it.  Just prep stuff.  Cleaning out the car, making sure the clothes needed are washed, packing up small bags of essentials, you know...the normal "day before a theme park visit" kind of activities.

I just took a break to go and put on some more laundry, and I was horrified to find another basket FULL of towels.  And why was I horrified, you ask?  Because not even three days ago, I washed a load of towels that were piled up in the laundry room.  My kids have this stupid weird habit of using a clean towel EACH and EVERY time they take a shower (which is every day).  Which is ridiculous!  When you get out of the shower, you're clean, right?   So, why on earth do you need a clean towel EVERY time.  Sure, after a couple of showers, I get a new towel.  But NOT EVERY STINKIN' DAY!!

And it's not just shower towels, but pool towels.  My kids haven't figured out that after they're done swimming, they can pop their swimming stuff in the dryer and dry it.  The swimming suits and towels won't magically dry themselves sitting on TOP of the dryer... it doesn't work that way!!  Then the swimming stuff gets that nasty musty smell, cause the stuff sits there for two days, and I'm back to rinsing and repeating washing ALL of the swimming stuff again.

Well NOT ANYMORE!!!!!

I just laid the law down in my house.

They may be on summer break, but this is NOT a hotel.  I'm not going to go running around after them picking up their wet towels, and washing their stuff every single day.  

This is my break, too, and I didn't sign up for a summer of playing housemaid to three kids that are old enough to pitch in and help.  

I will happily and gladly take them to SDC, Branson for a few days, water parks, firework shows, shopping, movies, etc. etc, but ONLY if they pitch in and help out a little around this house.  I don't know when they thought they arrived at the Kid Heaven Resort, but check-out time is NOW.  

And the sad thing is, they know better.  They know how much those trips cost.  They know how hard I work and how I tightly budget in order to do those things.  They know that I give up the first four weeks of my summer break to have money to do those things.  And, usually, they are really good about being grateful and pulling their weight to show their appreciation.  It just happens to be the fact that I've let them slide on stuff over the past few days, and when a parent starts letting the kids push out the boundaries... they'll keep seeing what they can get away with.

While I'm whining and complaining, I will say that Peanut cleaned their bathroom yesterday.  One chore that I will absolutely REFUSE to do.  And when I say cleaned, I mean that bathroom is so sparkling clean you could eat dinner off of it.  Butter cleaned his room to the same standards.  They do stuff around the house, don't get me wrong.  It's just little things that rub me the wrong way sometimes that I just have to remind them of in my best "horns will grow out of my head if you do this one more time" voice.  

When I picked this house to buy, I thought about the summers that we'll get to spend lounging by the pool, watching movies in our amazing living room, hanging out on the patio having a barbecue.  And, it's stuff I talked about ALL of the time while we were moving in.  So, I know that when summer comes around they are thinking about that stuff, and how much nicer and more fun their summers will be.  I just failed to reiterate how important it would be for EVERYONE to do their part on keeping the place clean in order for it to be comfortable.  

But, I know how they feel.  I don't like spending every day cleaning.  However, what I'm slowly trying to teach them is that if we all pitch in with some kind of simple task each day - that lasts maybe 15-20 minutes - the place will stay clean.  And for the most part, they are catching on.  It's just days like today when something like cleaning another whole load of towels just a couple of days after I washed all of the towels in the house sets me off on my "stop being so lazy" tirade.  They're not lazy.  They help out.  They just need a bit of direction every now and then.

And, it at least gave me something to write about today.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone!!