Three More Hours

I'm eating lunch right now (vegan-ized Taco Soup...yum!) at exactly 12:00 and it's just occurred to me that I have THREE MORE HOURS until anyone is going to walk into this house.  I've already had three hours this morning of complete, blissful silence that I've filled with great things...so this THREE MORE HOURS is just an extra bonus.  I'm finished with all the pressing responsibilities.  I've read stuff.  I've written in my journal.  I've been quiet.  I've cleaned.  So now, the remaining THREE MORE HOURS are totally mine to do with whatever I want!!  (That rarely happens, btw.  Usually I look at the clock and I only have 3 minutes before the kids come home.  Sometimes, I don't even get to look at the clock...they just appear and I think, "how is it that you're already home?")

But today, apparently I'm getting that alone time that I was craving earlier in the week.  It's my reward for having FIVE unexpected snow days in TWO weeks, I'm sure. 

I've given this a lot of thought in the last 5 minutes and guess what I'm going to do with my THREE MORE HOURS...well, now it's 2 hours and 50 minutes.  I'm going to get garbage bags and tackle the upstairs bedrooms.  Because if not me, then who?  And if not now, then when?  And because I sincerely LOVE throwing stuff away.  Garbage bags are my friends.  My favorite day of the week is TRASH DAY when all the old stuff gets hauled away and I'm left with empty garbage cans to spend the week filling back up.

I have never in my life been a saver.  Which is a good thing because it sort of guarantees that my family will never appear on that Hoarders show on A&E.  But it's crappy when Halloween rolls around and children are trying to MAKE their own costumes.  I don't EVER have any good piles of stuff to rummage through.  If I haven't used it or worn it in the past year, it's gone.  That rule does NOT apply to dishes or table linens or pictures or handmade things, however; except maybe macaroni necklaces.


My three younger kids are the BEST spot cleaners on the planet.  They do a great job putting their stuff away before they leave for school in the mornings.  They can make their beds better than I can.  But somehow things creep in there and never find their way out.  They're not allowed to eat in their bedrooms, but somehow there are empty cups in there with goldfish crumbs in them...hmmm?  There are things under the beds and in the corners that I KNOW I've asked them to find and get rid of...but they're still there.  So I'm going in.  I'm stripping sheets off the beds.  I'm hauling everything out of the rooms.  I'm letting the vacuum cleaner make that delightful sound when it's picking up little tiny things off the floor.  And then I'm going to put it all back where it's supposed to be.  


My kids don't love when I do this.  In fact, they dread it.  Fortunately for them, it doesn't happen very often.  But the rule is: if it's on the floor, it's fair game.  If they love it, they need to put it away.  So I have no guilt about this whatsoever, and hopefully it'll only take me TWO HOURS and I'll still have time before they come home to do something else amazingly productive.  

oh, and I'm taking MY DROID in there with me...MCC Radio on Pandora...bliss...