Housekeeping 101

Today was a "house" day.

First, we bathed. This may seem obvious, but for us it is an accomplishment. Since none of my four can bathe themselves yet, bath-time entails an entire morning of tubby time. So now we finally smell good. (Except E, who was at school, and still needs her shower. But I still crossed it off the list, because it sure felt like I did something.)

Then, I made a grocery list. I had to think of some new meals since - due to illness, not pregnancy - I've pretty much thrown up everything I used to like to eat.

Then, we went to the grocery store. First we picked up E, because school was over - and anyway, who wants to go to the store with three children when you can go with four? This is how it went down:

I drove up to WalMart. I parked. And then, I drove away. Yep, I was too scared.

Unfortunately at the stop light I saw visions of our refrigerator at home:

no milk
no lunch supplies
no dinner supplies

And, yes, that pretty much crosses every meal off the list.

So, I turned around and went back.

In the parking lot I:

fed the baby
put GQ in a cart
put S in the sling (remember that I am height deficient and cannot see over the carseat if I put it on the cart like you normal people)
told E and M to hold onto the sides of the cart.

And we went in. Once inside, we set about grocery shopping. The kids were actually really good. The worst it got was E deciding to hold a spontaneous ballet class in the produce section. As for myself, I must admit that I operated in a bubble. I hate that look on people's faces that appears once they manage to count all the children attached to my cart. So, if you tried to wave at me, just realize I was ignoring everyone.

Once home, feeling very proud of myself, I decided to clean the floor. This is how I did it in case you want to repeat my amazing methods:

1. Give your three children glasses of water and straws.
2. When they start blowing bubbles decide to be one of those "cool" moms that doesn't freak out.
3. Leave the room to change the other child's diaper.
4. Ignore sounds of the children getting more water from the fridge.
5. When you come back and find a lake on your kitchen floor tell your children to get some bath towels and wipe up the water.

(perhaps this may seem unsanitary since half of the water was blown out of my children's mouths... but beggars can't be choosers, my friends, and I must say that my kitchen floor looks very sparkly just now.)