Day 22

Bad:

Is it just me or is it virtually impossible to keep a house clean with four little rug rats running around? Today I spent hours cleaning the house......I mean it took ALL DAY.....I didn't shower until the evening (which is gross, but necessary) and about 23 minutes after I had finished cleaning, it looked as if a bomb went off! I mean seriously......it is such a thankless job. I always say that cleaning with kids is like taking one step forward and two steps back. Just when you have one mess cleaned up, you turn around and BAM.....another disaster is staring at you right in the face. It's enough to make me want to lose my ever-lovin' mind! And while I'm on my little soap box of complaining......why does it take so DANG long??!!?? I do not live in the largest of houses. It should take me a couple hours....TOPS.....and yet, every time I clean my house I have to chalk that day up to a loss. I can pretty much expect that I will spend the day in my sweats, my hair pulled back in a pony, bra-less (shhhh.....don't tell) and un-showered. So, um, yeah.....try your hardest not to come and visit me on this day because 1. I will not look like a jewel and 2. I will {most} likely not ACT like a jewel and 3. I will be very close to losing my EVER-LOVIN' mind!!! Consider yourself warned......


Good:

A couple of weeks ago while I was chilling at Lew's softball games, I struck up a random conversation with a guy about reading. Weird, right? Well.....not quite. He was reading a book and I asked him if it was any good (because fellow readers MUST unite) and our conversation turned to a little website called "Paperback Swap." The whole premise of this website is a place where people can post their books that they no longer want to keep and people can request those books and in return you get credits to request books that you want to read. Have I confused you sufficiently? (I'm pretty sure I just confused myself.) It sounded like a great idea....(one that I wish I would have thought of myself so that I could be making the big bucks and I could hire a maid and avoid situations like the aforementioned post)......but I initially balked at the idea. (Shhhhh......lean close and I will let you in on a little secret. I loooovvvvveee books. All books. And once I buy them......they are MINE. They become like my babies. And what kind of mother just flippantly gives her babies away for different babies? I don't know how you were raised but c'mon.....have some common decency. ) BUT the more I thought about it, the more it weighed on my mind. I could use some new books to read. I'm sure I have SOME books that aren't worth anything to me. So.....before I knew it I was down in my bookshelves, rustling though my "babies" and tossing the unwanted ones into a pile. And then....before I knew it I was listing those books on the website and eagerly awaiting the new books that I had requested. I'm pretty callous, right? But in my defense.....if you've read one Oprah's book club choice....you've read them all. (What was I thinking buying all of those crappy books??? Sorry Oprah, but you KNOW I'm right.) Well.....today was the grand day of all days because I got my very first swap in the mail and I am currently awaiting TEN more books to come to my doorstep and I am very excited because not only will I have a while new stack of books to read, but it's like Christmas when I check my mail! And that, right there, is worth giving up a few of my "babies." Just don't call the authorities......

08.26.09