I'm Floored

As we were debating our trip down to Cedar, Jeff's concern was that the trip would be mayhem. The trip ended up going fairly smoothly with little hiccups, and uncharacteristically go-with-the-flow children.

However, when we got home, I had 2 full days of this:

I showed the picture to Jeff when he asked how my day went after I had spent the entire day listening to Lincoln scream at me. Jeff's reply was simply, "Mayhem." The mayhem did strike. It just wasn't quite when we expected it to.

After my crabby days with Lincoln, I woke up and thought, "Okay. I'm going to have a better attitude and have a good day with Lincoln."

The garbage man helped move our day in the right direction in the morning. Lincoln anxiously peeked around the bush as the garbage man worked his way up the hill.

Then when he was within view, Lincoln excitedly pointed and shrieked, "GARBAGE MAN COMING!" until he was sure we were all aware of the approaching vehicle.

And then when the garbage man is in full view, Lincoln can do little more than freeze in awe.

To get a thorough look at his favorite weekly occurrence, he chased that stinky truck all the way up the hill, marveling at its every move.

Wednesdays are pretty big around here.

So with my new positive attitude towards Lincoln, the garbage man adding a little bit of sparkle to our day, a little more sleep to recover from the weekend under our eyes, I was feeling good. I was feeling optimistic. I had a can-do attitude...which led me to believe I could mop the kitchen floor while Lincoln was roaming the house.

Bad move, mama. Such. A bad move.

The security blanket I thought I had going for me was that the boys were on the computer doing Carson's preschool. He does preschool for 20-30 minutes -- AKA -- 1 quick kitchen floor mop. Easy. Done.

Every once in a while Lincoln will yank on Carson's hair like he's shucking an ear of corn, or bite into his arm...like he's...biting into an ear of corn. Or throwing him into a pot of boiling hot water...Anyway. The point is, preschool usually has the power to entertain them fairly peacefully for a slightly reasonable amount of time.

So with the boys on the computer, I frantically move chairs, move rugs, sweep, begin mopping right up until I reach the office door. Where Lincoln emerges with his shorts down to his ankles. I laugh because this happens often with our below-the-5th-percentile-in-weight boy. I pop his pants back on his bottom and little paper flecks fly off of him.

He toddles back in to the office while I notice there's a little path of paper flecks following the exact path a certain little boy had just traveled. I follow the path to find this.

Lincoln discovered the paper shredder. And I discovered there is no document so private it needs to be shredded into quarter-inch pieces just to be thrown all over the floor. I would rather have my identity stolen than walk into this mess again. Okay probably not but come on!

The irony that while I was feeling so good about getting one filthy floor clean Lincoln was busily destroying the neighboring floor is not lost on me.

Deep breaths. I will survive 4 kids. (Repeat, repeat, repeat.)

Becky has helped me in my 4-kid survival plan. Look at her spinning my kids on a spinny park thing AGAIN! This is why we take her with us when we go out.

Also she holds babies so basically she's the best park buddy.

We managed to hit up 2 parks this day. Probably because parks don't have floors you have to keep clean so it helped me with my I-will-have-a-positive-attitude-with-Lincoln mentality. But the trouble with going to 2 parks in one day is your 2-year-old then looks like this. And gets your floors dirty as soon as he walks in the house.

You know those people who live in houses with dirt floors? I think they're on to something.

And I didn't realize I was doing a whole floor-themed post, but while we're here...

You know. Sometimes you just gotta dump a water bottle on the floor. I watched him do it. It was entirely intentional. He was proud of himself, but the guilt became evident once the camera came out. You forget 2-year-olds are so...2-year-olds.

Deep breaths. I will survive 4 kids. (Repeat, repeat, repeat.)

You know what's a key part of my survival plan? Ice cream and friends. And even better if you've got 'em at the same time. On the last day of school we went and grabbed my favorite high school treat -- a root beer ice cream cone -- with our friends we met on the first day of school. Full circle!

Now I'm feeling the need to keep things floor related. The weeds were getting a little out of hand due to the negligence of our lawn in the name of caring for a new baby. I was overwhelmed at the thought of weeding the whole thing by myself and thought, "I didn't birth all these boys for nothing!"

I announced I would be awarding anyone who helped me weed the yard 1 bowl of ice cream and my how I suddenly found myself with some cheap labor! (Except when I labored them that wasn't cheap, so I guess I earned their labor through my labor and that's how we'll justify child labor?)

Anyway, if there's one thing I want my kids to learn it's to work hard. I believe you can pretty much do anything you want as long as you know how to be a hard worker. This seemed like a good start to instill some of those principles. Without any mention of hard work from me, Eli came alive out in the dirt. He was anxious to help, eager to work, and a little chatter box. 

I could see the work was bringing him joy and purpose which is exactly why I love work! My plan was "working!" Then completely on his own Eli said, "Mom. I want to be a hard worker like Grandpa Thomas. You're a hard worker and I'm a hard worker and that's why we're called Thomas." Never been more proud of my little Thomas buddy!

As I told this story to my Dad, he reminded me that the best part about work is seeing what you've accomplished. My how we've appreciated a nice lawn after we shoveled out all of those pesky weeds!

Guys. I seriously didn't mean to make this a floor post. These pictures were here before the ideas were. But I love where they've taken me. Here's our favorite type of flooring. I took the boys to a park with a ginormous playground, but they all just sat in the sand like this for exactly 1 hour. I think I've heard my mom say she feels like sand is therapeutic to kids and I totally saw that this night! After my week, I probably should have gotten in there with them!

But I had this little bugger who isn't quite compatible with sand.