On the First Day of Christmas Break

BBB just called to chastise me for not blogging today. I thought maybe that having posted a couple of things yesterday I'd bought a free pass but apparently some people just aren't satisfied. Or have too much time on their hands at work. Or are just focused on their mom's plane arriving. For my part, I was busy sleeping in and finishing up some Christmas shopping. I was also sweeping out The Child's bedroom which was a very, very scary experience.

I was not exactly an example of cleanliness as a child. Growing up on a farm there was always a film of dirt on my play clothes because we did messy things like climb trees, dig in the dirt and build forts in the dusty rafters of the barn. And my room wasn't exactly something straight out of House and Garden. It was a sty, most of the time. Although I would be taken by ocassional fits of organizational fervor and would clean and toss and sort within an inch of my little, tiny life. The goodwill would last for a few days and then it was back to throwing clothes on the chair, leaving toys all over and not making my bed.

Which is all to say that I can't really get too sanctimonious when it comes to The Child's housekeeping abilities or lack thereof. Actually, she's a lot like I was...she will have these freaks where she wants to make her room "look like a hotel" and the end result is 4 stars. And like me, she doesn't keep it up. She drops everything on the floor, whether towels or teddy bears, hair brushes or precious jewels. She blows through earrings and pony tail holders like a drunken sailor on leave because she never, never, not ever puts anything back where she found it. It is apparently just too much trouble to open a freaking drawer and insert a clean pair of socks when throwing them on top of the dresser will suffice.

All my sage and patient advice about having a place for everything and everything in it's place? Just more of that wacky parental comedy. What do I know about anything? Oh sure, I can always find a clean tee shirt to wear because I actually put my laundry away rather than dumping it all in one drawer or shoving it to the back of the closet. But that doesn't make me an expert or anything.

Anyway, after she supposedly cleaned her room today I went in to sweep only to discover that a) in a highly unoriginal and derivitive effort she hadn't cleaned so much shoved everything under the bed and b) she has apparently started a home-based business as a potpourri manufacturer because I swept up something like 34 pounds of dried satsuma peel (and no, she's not supposed to be eating in her room). But wouldn't you know that when I confronted her with both facts I was the unreasonable one? Don't I know she's on vacation? Is she supposed to spend all her free time making her room perfect? Don't I realize that maybe she just wants to play? Man, she's good.

Anyway, she had to put away all her stuff, which made her very harumphy and then I took the Hazmet crew in to sanitize her floor. And now, an episode of "Full House" and a toffee cookie later, she seems to have regained her general sense of well-being. Good thing, too. Tomorrow we organize her closet. (Insert maniacal laugh here).