Bug Splats Force Emergency Suburban Cleaning

Michelle and the boys took a trip up to the Petersen's over the weekend.  It was a busy trip but Michelle came home with several completed wood projects for the home (it helps to have the tools and know-how to do these projects). We are very grateful to Uncle Kyle and Grandpa Petersen for their expertise, experience and assistance to expedite these projects to completion; Grandma Petersen also was essential to the whole project process, especially helping with all of the children at their house.

Coming home (apparently) there was a great swarm of bugs, encouraged by the warmer weather, on the highway greeting all of the travelers. By the time Michelle made it home the suburban was completely caked with bug splat. The boys were given the task of cleaning the bug splat off of the suburban. They loved this assignment because 1) they got to go into the front yard, 2) they got to play with the water, and 3) they could climb all over the suburban.

I'm not really sure that the suburban could be classified as clean but the kids had a great time in the process. (Love the journey, not the destination!)

Car Wash

My boys wanted to surprise me with a clean car when I got home from work. They did a great job! Thanks boys!!!

Organization is the Key

Michelle has a knack for getting things organized. "Everything has a place and everything in its place," is a motto she often quotes to me. Knowing that sometime you just need a little nudge to get her going I started a "simple" project Saturday morning.

We've been talking about switching the blanket closet for the boy's closet (of adult supervised activities). See, the problem is that during "quite time" at least one of the boys is sleeping and getting an activity for the other boys who are awake requires sneeking into the bedroom and removing the item (after finding it) without waking the sleeping child. The sneeking was tolerable but the finding was getting to be a significant challenge.

After hearing about this for too long I decided it was time to swap closets. Michelle told me to put the boy's stuff on the table so she could sort through it. I pulled out all the blankets and put them in the boys room. I then began the process of extracting all sorts of items out of the closet in the boy's room. Most of the stuff didn't seem to have any logical relationship to each other. There was a loose collection of childrens books, some puzzles, some activity stuff and other random nick nacks. I put it on the shelves in a loose Khayyam organization with the most random stuff on the kitchen table. Once the boy's closet was cleaned out and vacuumed I placed all the blankets inside.

I then announced that the project had gone as far as I could take it and the rest was up to Michelle. Before long I noticed that every item I had placed in the closet had been removed! Not a single item was in its "original" place. Well, Michelle is the master mind so I just let her go to work. And before I knew what had happened we had organization...or everything!


This picture shows the final result. It would have been more dramatic if there had been a before picture but we're still marveling at this level of oranization. Sometimes we just walk by and open the door just to look at it. Most of the organization was done with old diaper and wipes boxes that we seem to have (in abundance). But now everything is categorized and labeled and even the boys know where to put things away. AMAZING! And there is simply no way I could have completed such a feat of organization alone.

Cleaning the Chapel

Our family decided to participate in the ward breakfast and chapel cleaning event this morning. The ward provided pancakes, eggs, bacon and cantelope (and drinks of course). In general our 3 older boys don't have the ability to focus on food when there are so many friends to play with at the ward functions.

So while they may not have eaten the best meal in their lives they certainly had an enjoyable time running around and playing with their friends.

After breakfast we began our "deep" cleaning of the chapel. This includes more than just wiping off the chalk boards and emptying the trash. Our assignment was to clean the tables and windows in the classrooms. David and Donovan bravely took the assignment of spraying each table and window. Michael and Mommy were on wipe-down duty. Daddy got to carry the trash bag and keep everyone corralled until we moved to the next room. Aleky was a full-time supervisor. Occassionally we were able to get everyone (except Aleky) with paper towels and cleaning all at the same time! As we neared the end Donovan and Michael were doing a great job working together as a team, Donovan would spray and Michael would wipe-down. David managed to sneak off to the gym to play with his friends and had to be retrieved to finish the work.

When we had finished our assignment we were please to hear those immortal words "But mom, we want to clean some more!" While these sentiments may not last it brought a warm spot to our hearts.