A definition: Kitchen clean-up

I have been playing with, reading to, driving around, and cleaning up after my children since 7:30am. (Lydia finally went down at 10pm…a story that may or may not be told in this blog.) They napped for two beautiful hours, during which I lay on the couch, picked out a recipe for dinner and read half of No Easy Day by Mark Owen (the navy seal on the team who killed Bin Laden).

Here’s what I accomplished today. I read Lydia over 30 books (I counted during clean-up), most of them multiple times. I colored a LOT with Lydia and got carried away doing the word puzzles in her Candy and Cupcakes coloring book. I showered, got dressed, and even put on make-up (all with Mary’s active participation). I cooked breakfast (eggs and oatmeal), lunch (mac ‘n cheese from a box and baked beans from a can), and dinner (bean, basil and zucchini salad–from my garden!, instant oatmeal again, nutella sandwiches because I was beginning to be depressed that 2 hours had passed and we were still in the throes of meal time).

I cleaned the kitchen every time the girls ate meals or snacks (every one and a half hours in the morning, and continually from 4:30pm until 7pm at night.) I cleaned it again after I put the girls to bed at 9pm, and then again after Lydia screamed and screamed and screamed that she was hungry and needed a late night snack at 10pm.

You may wonder what I mean by “cleaning the kitchen,” and you also might wonder why I do it so often. I mean this: Getting down on my hands and knees and using a wash rag to scrub everywhere the girls have dropped/thrown their food while eating. Then I scrub down surfaces where they ate (sometimes I start doing this while they are eating so that I have a head start and so Mary doesn’t totally lose it during that awful time when she’s done eating but I still have more to clean before I can get her up because if I don’t, she WILL crawl everywhere and track the mess all over the house. Excuse the run-on, but those times of day are when my stress level feels almost unmanageable.) I then clean all the dishes it took to produce and eat the meal. Sometimes I leave the dishes until later, but I hate doing that because I know I will have even more dishes to do on less energy as the day marches on.

I have considered NOT cleaning the kitchen so much, but then I just picture little feet running through the kitchen and then tracking crumbs, jelly and cheese goop all over the house. In this reverie, I also visualize little hands touching sticky surfaces and then sticky-fying my entire house. That thought makes me want to start drinking. I am not exaggerating. So instead, I keep on cleanin’ on, and by the end of the day, I’m not drinking, but believe me, my inner dialogue is soooooo not G, PG, or PG13 rated.

Okay, where was I? Oh, yes. After I got dressed, I read Mary these:

Mary practically jumped out of my arms by the time I finished with The Big, Hungry Caterpillar. I have to resort to using props to keep her focused. After I stopped breast feeding her two months ago, I realized that I had spent so much time nursing her I rarely/never (?) took the time to read to only her. So now I am trying to make up for lost time.
Mary practically jumped out of my arms by the time I finished with The Big, Hungry Caterpillar. I have to resort to using props (pictured) to keep her focused. After I stopped breast feeding her two months ago, I realized that I had spent so much time nursing her that I rarely/never (?) took the time to read to just her.

Then I took the girls to the library for story time.

I took the girls to story time at the library, and can I tell you how much I LOVE these librarians? As in, each time we go to story time, I silently praise God that these talented, smart, funny people chose to be children's librarians.
Each time we go to story time, I silently praise God that these talented, smart, funny people chose to be children’s librarians. They are heroes to me, but they probably don’t have any idea how much their efforts are appreciated.

Then the guy who checked our books out told us that it was going to rain. With that in mind, I high-tailed it to the park for some outdoors time before the downpour.  The weather while we played at the park was my version of heaven (the overcast, breezy, not-at-all chilly kind of glorious).

The guy who checked our books out told me it was supposed to rain today, so I immediately drove the girls to the park to cram some outdoors time in before it rained. Sure enough, after half an hour, it started to rain. But the weather while we were there was my version of heaven (the overcast, breezy, not-at-all chilly kind of glorious). Here's Lydia climbing to the big slide.
Here’s Lydia climbing to the big slide.
Here's Mary napping while Lydia played.
Here’s Mary napping while Lydia played.

Then it was home, lunch, coloring time, reading time, and nap time. After nap time, we embarked on an eating fest that lasted almost until bath time.

Here's a better look at Mary's top knot. She is naked because she ate from approximately 4:30pm to 7pm, with very few breaks. She was fussy the ENTIRE time (probably because her morning nap was cut short), and I had to remove her clothes halfway through her little food extravaganza.
Here’s a better look at Mary’s top knot. She is naked because she ate from approximately 4:30pm to 7pm, with very few breaks. Halfway through that eating extravaganza, her clothes were entirely covered in food and needed to be removed.
After dinner, I took the girls outside to play. While we were outside, we saw this! The sky is so dramatic in Utah. The first time I saw a rainbow like this here I cried, but today I kept my head about me and ran for my camera.
After dinner, I took the girls outside to play. While we were outside, we saw this! The sky is so dramatic in Utah. The first time I saw a rainbow like this in Utah I cried, but today I kept my head about me and ran for my camera.
Doesn't the rainbow look like it's landing on our neighbor's roof?
Doesn’t the rainbow look like it’s landing on our neighbor’s roof?

Abe has been out of town, but he got in tonight in time to see Lydia before I put her down again.

Time to go to bed so we can do it all again tomorrow.