I did a stupid thing today. I have had to do a year or so of cleaning in the past few days because Josh is having a birthday party here tomorrow. One of the scarier aspects of my home is the kid's playroom. It is inconveniently located behind the garage on the bottom floor. This means that I never have to accidentally see it and that I can completely ignore the tornado effect my kids have on their toys. That is precisely what I have been doing for a long long time. But, Josh thinks having his party down there is a great idea. I was forced to confront the demon. It wasn't easy. I had to pretend to have an invisible prison guard with a bully club behind me forcing me to throw things away. Typically I feel the need to sort. I hear myself thinking things like: "These are quality toys, someone could love and appreciate them." or "I know the kids would have fun with this one if only I could find all the pieces and put them in a big rubbermaid container, and always make sure they get returned to their special place on the shelf..." You know, the things that are never going to happen around here.
NOT TODAY, today I shoveled, well, I would have shovelled but my garage is in chaos competition with the playroom and I can't find the shovel, so I dust panned the toys up, picking out only a few really exceptional kinds of toy and threw the rest away. The kids will never know!! As of this morning I had 3 contractor bags full of garbage from the playroom. I had just finished loading up the fourth bag and was running, well I couldn't actually run due to the amount of stuff a contractor bag can hold, so I was slowly dragging the contractor bag (and my camera) down the driveway only to discover that the garbage men showed up 2 hours early and I couldn't visually record my victory over stuff. Bummer.
But that didn't stop me, oh no, this time I was determined. Oh praise the power of potential humiliation. For honestly, the playroom was part of the reason I am totally lame about asking friends of my kids over for playdates. It had gotten BAD down there. Once I had rediscovered the carpet and there were only a few more shovel/dust pans full of clutter on the floor, I attempted to dislodge some stuff from under the treadmill. This is when Evan sugested I get on the treadmill and put it up on an incline so the crap underneath it would be more acceptable. I thought "What a good idea!" hopped right on , raised it up, and realized that I didn't want the kids reaching underneath. SO I asked Evan to get on the treadmill while I cleaned out the area underneath. I am not sure when Evan got off the treadmill, but when 20 minutes later I attempted to stand on it in order to reach something it was still moving and I ended up flat on the belt smashed between the treadmill and the wall, screaming "Turn it off, turn it off!!" That is when I knew I was way too tired, well that and when I put my favorite pan on the stove to warm it up and forgot about it, and needed to take a break.
Tomorrow is the party and I still have to figure out what I am going to do to entertain the kids until the pizza comes. I guess I can always get out my balloon animals.
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