I'll Tell You, If You Tell Me

I've been wondering a lot about this since becoming a stay at home mom (a.k.a. the best job in the world.) What you ask? This...this the greatest of all questions...

Why is every one's house cleaner than mine?

And then I get all philosophical and think, they can't be...they just can't. I clean, I vacuum, I dust, I sweep, I mop, I scrub toilets, I wipe down sinks, counter tops and tables, I place items in their "homes," and... AND I only have one child so clearly not every one's house is cleaner than mine. I think my mind plays tricks on me. Like how I look in the mirror and see obesity and then see a girl walking down the street and think, is that what I look like to other people and Shawn who sees me eyeballing said girl (without me saying a word) looks at me with a furrowed brow and says with a tired tone, "no, not even close." I really do think that my mind plays tricks on me, I think other people's dirt is invisible to me because while I used to think they were just better house keepers I'm starting to think the more likely scenario is that I'm delusional.

So I ask you this...is it invisible to you too? Do you guys see other people's dirt? Do you feel like everyone else's house is cleaner than yours even though they work full time and have 17 children? Or is your house really, truly immaculate all the time and if so, how much time do you spend cleaning? Actually, even if not so I'm curious, how much time do you spend cleaning?

I feel like I clean a little everyday but the job is never done. If everything is vacuumed and swept and put away and neat and tidy I start to notice that he floor boards need to be dusted or Heaven forbid the blinds. Don't get me started, don't even get me started.

I realize things are only going to get worse as my family grows. I saw on a local talk show the other day some "expert," an expert on what I have no idea, saying that it is impossible to raise happy children and have a perfectly clean house. Expert or no, I want to believe. (Believe that she is right that is, so that when my house is filthy I can think to myself, "Wow, what an incredible mother I must be!")

So incase you care, here's a list of things I try to do once a week:
Vacuum
Dust
Sweep (more like everyday with my child's experiements in sending Cheerio's into flight)
Mop
Bathrooms
Laundry
Wipe mirrors and glass

Every 2 weeks-ish:
Vacuum Stairs
Organize something like a closet

Even less often:
Wipe base boards
Windex windows

Never:
Blinds

How about you?

Jail Bird

We went to check on the boy before we went to bed a few nights ago and this is what we found. This pathetic little kid has his arms through different bars like he was stuck in prison. Maybe he was reaching for a book or something...he's been pretty into books lately, into eating them that is.

Balloona Palooza

I blew up some balloons the other day and this kid thought it was the most fun.
Enjoy some shots of my blue eyed sugar pie.

(fuzzy shot, but pretty funny)

Forgotten Photo

Somehow I just realized that I didn't include my favorite Hawaii picture in my Maui post.

This is on our hike, he looks like a little jungle monkey boy. I love that silly kid.

Maui!!!

I know, I know...we were in Maui a month ago. When I take a million pictures I usually stop blogging because the thought of sorting through them all and finding just the best ones to post is overwhelming. I'm giving in though and just posting...you might not get a carefully chosen selection but "I just can't take it anymore." (Cue me ripping off my glasses to fake drown.)

Maui was, oh what's the word...AMAZING! So good. Everything I ever dreamed it would be. It was warm, it was sunny, it was salty, it was sandy, it was America, it was expensive. Oh, maybe that should be on the con list?

Berkley was a trooper. I really mean it. He was great on the flights both coming and going, he was an angel on the beach and in the car and sleeping wherever we were whenever he got tired. I really can't say enough how great he was. He did suffer a little jet lag so we took EARLY family walks on the beach, but it was also kind of great to be by ourselves on the beach like that.

We swam, we snorkeled, we ate, we played, we hiked. On my first snorkel experience, I'm not going to lie I was nervous. I don't know why but it kind of freaked me out, but once we got started it wasn't so bad. We saw lots of fish and 3 sea turtles. The second time, at a different location I saw another sea turtle and 3 SHARKS! For real. 63 and Larry were beckoning April and Marisha and I to come look at something and there they were, 3 sharks in an underwater cave. I didn't get too close so I was telling people they were 3-4 feet and 63 and Larry who were practically making out with the beasts were like, no Whitney, those were bigger than you, they were easily 6 feet. YIKES. Glad I didn't realize that until I was out of the water.

We took a ferry over to Lanai one of the days and that was awesome. Clear blue water, dolphins jumping out of the water, schools of brightly colored fish underneath us as we snorkeled. We walked around the 4 Seasons resort there. Amazing, the gardens there were beautiful and their Koi made the ones at my work look like tadpoles. And that's saying something.

We drove to Hana and hiked through a bamboo forest too. It was beautiful! Well those are the highlights and in an effort to keep this somewhat brief I'll leave it at that. Mission Maui was definitely a success.