Cool Beans
As I sit to type this, my 18 month old is being entertained by the 4 year old, who is throwing Boggle pieces at the ceiling vajh./,.
Sorry, one just landed on my hand. Anyway, he is attempting to roll an ‘E’, at which point he will be ‘the winner’.
It’s fine, really, since the Boggle frame is filled with yogurt from the last time I tried to blog with them awake. And no one I know wants to play anyway, since they are sore losers too busy.
So I take a look around my house and I think, how in the HELL does anyone with children ever get anything done??
I realize I have different standards of cleanliness than most. My canned goods can generally be found under the dining table or in the toy boxes. Hey, they make good stacking toys and I bet they contain way less lead than the FDA limit. My Sam’s Club-sized supply of paper towels is balled up in a trash bag because number one son unrolled them all down the stairs. And there is a chip clip attached to a tricycle with a removeable bra strap. Also? Half of a muffin fell on the steps the other day. It’s still there.
Even though I would actually prefer to live in a spare, open loft with books organized by color and size and no visible clutter, I accept that I will never be that person. I am a slacker / hoarder trapped in the body of an obsessive- compulsive neat freak, and trust me – it’s not pretty in here. So since I can’t have my space be perfect, I let it go completely.
Right now, the toddler has moved on from the Boggle tossing championships, and is happily taking handfuls of dried beans from a container and putting them into a smaller container. And by ‘putting’, I mean taking his handful of beans and somewhere in the vicinity of ‘over’ the small container – letting them go. And missing. Every last one of them. And this is a-okay with me.
Because first of all, I was never going to have time to soak those beans overnight and boil them so the whatever-that-enzyme-thingy-is-that-you-have-to-boil-out-of-the-beans is gone. And then cook them for 87 hours. And second, I get to write.
And before you ask about that picture – yes, that is my bread machine on the floor. If I can’t clean up that muffin, you really think I have time to put flour and stuff in there??
Anyway, now I have to go. The four year old came in, saw the beans and said, “YAY, YAY!!” And now?
It’s raining beans.
January 19, 2009 at 20:25
Do what I did – marry someone compulsively tidy.
January 19, 2009 at 22:56
Ok I just about died of laughter after reading this. And I married a compulsive neat freak too.
January 21, 2009 at 09:42
my home is much like yours – except with girls it’s more about the creative things they want to make with paper, ribbon, embellishments – the houses they want to build with whatever they dream up – the pretend play with everything pulled off my once neat and tidy shelves of adult stuff – AND, to top it off I married a not-so-neat-freak. I’m doomed. I fantasize often about the loft with neat bookshelves ….especially when I open the doors to the *craft* closet (my sad attempt at order) and get impaled by whatever they’ve haphazardly piled on the shelves (not to mention what comes pouring out on to my feet)
January 21, 2009 at 18:21
I make up for having boys by having my own creative mess! Just ask Melissa
I have a whole room full of fabric and paper stuff and paints – you name it. And I still have stuff all over the house. I’m hopeless *sigh*.
January 25, 2009 at 11:35
Jennifer, this is why I love you!!! LOL!
March 21, 2009 at 14:53
[...] the rectangular plastic container holds beans from the great bean extravaganza of 2009. I should throw them away, but why? Maybe we’ll use them again. Next to it is [...]
March 31, 2009 at 13:47
[...] Cool Beans [...]