Reflections on a Floor Full of Legos

As I lie on the floor planning to take a rest or nap, unable to lie on the couch because I don't want to move the Legos the boys have put there, another Lego guy stares me in the face. Ugh... should I get up and pick all these things up?

I face the battle I'm sure any stay at home mom faces - or any mom for that matter - the battle to keep the house clean. It's a losing battle on most days for sure. I clean the table. The boys are home for 30 min, and the table is a mess again. I sweep the floor. One meal or snack later, and it looks like it's never been done. I'm trying to teach the boys how to pick up after themselves. Most of the time, they still require reminders and perhaps a little nagging before they do it, and sometimes the hassle of that is not worth it, so the Legos stay on the couch or on the floor. That's how it is today.

But why is it so important to me that I keep the house clean? Besides the obvious - that it's more pleasant to eat on a clean table off of clean dishes, or that it needs to be done eventually, so I might as well stay on top of it. But why have I become so compulsive about it? Could it be that I have defined myself too much by how clean my house is, judging the job I am doing by how few dishes are in the sink? Could I be looking for that pat on the back from my husband or kids, saying how good I am at being a stay at home mom? Perhaps someday the kids will come home and say, "Mom, good job getting that stain off the white countertop" or "Wow, the bathroom sure is clean this afternoon." Perhaps not.

No, I'm not going to pick up that Lego guy. Instead I am going to lie here and rest, reflecting on how blessed I am to have two beautiful boys who love playing with their Legos. I'm going to reflect on how each of the things lying around our home hold some kind of value in the lives of the people I love. I'm going to look around the house when I get up and think about how blessed I am to have a family, to have people whom I love and who love me in return, even if they mess up this house I am trying to keep clean, on a daily basis.

A clean sweep

One of the upsides to having someone over to your house (besides having great company) is having an excuse to clean your house. My house is CLEAN today (once I vacuum the stairs and upstairs that is - didn't quite get to that) after a stressful day of making it that way yesterday. Now the trick is to keeping it that way!

Another great quote from Blaise

Blaise: "If I lived in a family where no one loves Jesus, I think I'd have to leave."
Me (laughing): "Well, I'm glad we all love Jesus then, because I don't want you to leave us."

Overheard in the Car

Overheard in the car on the way to CCD last night:

Isaac: Blaise, it's a good thing we're both boys.

Blaise: Why?

Isaac: Because we're going to like each other for a long, long time.

Blaise: Even if you were a girl, and I was a boy, we'd still like each other for a long, long time.

That definitely put a smile on Andy's and my faces. These are the moments that make me especially grateful I am a mom to these two beautiful boys.

School Days

My boys started school earlier this month. They both love it and are very blessed to have wonderful teachers. Blaise's teacher is a first year teacher, but she seems to be so good and very enthusiastic. I asked his speech teacher how things seemed to be going when she would go into the classroom to get Blaise. She very enthusiastically told me what a wonderful teacher he has and described how the kids are enjoying 1st grade so much and are learning but having so much fun doing so. I have also been very impressed with her when talking with her. Tomorrow I will be able to go with Blaise on an all-day field trip, and I am very much looking forward to that.

Isaac's 4k teacher also is very enthusiastic about learning and genuinely enjoys each child. Isaac is so excited to go to school each day, and is excited about all he is learning. It is fun to see my less intrinsically-motivated child enthusiastic about learning.

Here are a few pictures from their first couple days of school. First, my first-grader:

I brought Isaac to school the first day so that I could take a picture of him with his teacher (right) and teacher's assistant (left):



Most other days now, he rides the bus to school, because it was available. He's only on the bus with 4k kids and really likes riding with his friends. The first day, though, we waited, and waited, and waited...

Apparently she didn't think Isaac would be riding since he hadn't on the first day, so she had to come back for him. But he was all the more excited then when the bus did come.

As I said, I pick my boys up at the end of the day. Blaise decided, and arranged with his teacher, that he would go to Isaac's classroom and walk out of school with him when Isaac's class was ready to go. So they walk out every day holding hands. It's just the cutest thing!



But now that I look more closely at that picture, I really need to bring my camera and take another one - one where it doesn't look like Isaac is picking his nose! Yuck!! :)

Two more reasons our family won't be getting a dog

I am NOT a pet lover. I like other people's pets, usually, but prefer them to remain other people's pets and to come over to our yard only to be petted or played with. I didn't grow up with pets, and I'm sure that if I had, I wouldn't feel so strongly against having them. Well, that's not entirely true: my brother did have a pet hamster for two years, but he stayed primarily in his cage and slept most of the day.

A few of my reasons for not wanted a dog specifically and a pet more generally include the following:

• Hair in the house. Dog and cat hair bother me and almost disgust me when it is almost all over the place, though again I can handle it better if it's someone else's place than I'm sure I would if it were my own.
• Animals tracking dirt into the house. I have kids who do plenty of that. But at least with kids, you can have a rule that they remove their shoes before entering the kitchen or other living spaces.

• Vet expenses. I have heard some stories about how much people have paid at the vet's office, even for routine care. I think I would be accused of negligence in care of my pet if I had one.
• What to do with a dog when going out of town. It's another thing to think about and take care of when packing everyone up.

So what has me on this rampage of sorts? I found two more reasons today not to get a dog. Actually, my lawn mower found them. Even after I had picked up one other reason before mowing the lawn. Between all our neighbors, there are 5 dogs now that are regularly in our yard, and two others that are rarely here. But they have rarely given us gifts in our yard. So I blame the dog my most immediate neighbor just brought home a few weeks ago. But alas, not a big deal; I just sprayed the wheels off a couple times and reminded myself why we will not get our own dog.

That being said, we did just order a tadpole a few days ago, which should be coming in the mail in November. I am kind of excited about that one, as are my boys. But I do not plan to venture too much further than that into the world of pets.

That's just me.

The Sunflower

Isaac planted a sunflower seed in a paper cup early this spring in preschool. It was just a tiny shoot when he brought it home and we planted it. We did this with Blaise the year before, and the sunflower grew big but not huge. So we weren't expecting this one to be SO big. The boys enjoyed watching it grow, and grow, and grow. It took a while for it to be as tall as they were but then just shot up from there. "Is it going to be as tall as Daddy?" they would ask. "I don't know," I'd say. Well, I think it's safe to say that it is definitely taller than Daddy.

The boys also had to take pictures of just their brother and I. They were so proud of their pictures that I just had to include them in this post.