(Don't) Picture This

It was a beautiful weekend. The sun was shining, there was a gentle breeze, but it wasn't nearly as hot or muggy as it has been here on the East Coast of late. My sweet darling one year old decided both Saturday and Sunday that it would be lovely to rise early to enjoy the brillance of the morning. (Translation: Bennett woke me up at the butt crack of dawn). I spend Saturday diligently cleaning and organizing and laundering. We take a brief break in the afternoon to go buy a fun kiddie pool for the boys and get some dinner. We put the kids to bed and I return to my endless piles of laundry to fold. I read my book (which is turning out to be very good, by the way -->) for a while, watch a movie with Ace (Marley and Me), and crawl into bed at 1:30 a.m. Smart, Elle.

Sunday, again up with the rooster (aka Bennitto), I return to the usual tasks of cleaning house and corralling children. We have to leave for church at 11:30, so at 10:30, I wake Ace up (must be nice, huh?) and ask him to watch the kids, make the bed and make sure Carter gets dressed while I shower and dress. I come out of the shower to the sound of children crying in my bedroom. Carter and Bennett were there alone, and Bennett just got a head bump and was wailing. I scoop Bennett up to console him and yell for Ace.

Ace informs me that he just cannot take it (the screaming) anymore and he's going to take a shower. Bennett decides he wants to nurse (I am, afterall, topless) and just latches on to me without warning. Nice. My hair is sopping wet, I have a kid hanging off my chest, and Carter is bouncing off the walls. Meanwhile, Ace proceeds to shower and dress, and I'm STILL NAKED. Because a girl can't get 20 minutes of peace I 'spose. I snap. Hell hath no fury like an overly-stressed woman. I'm SCREAMING at Ace - "You never help me around the house," "You have no regard for our routines," yada, yada, yada, only slightly exaggerating or over-generalizing. All the while...still naked (please, don't picture it, it ain't pretty).

I look back at how comical it was at the time, but an important realization was reached by both of us yesterday morning ... The stress of work (which, by the way, I got an email from my boss this morning saying to prepare myself, we're about to get even busier...), the stress of my futile attempts to keep my house clean and orderly, and the severe lack of free time to enjoy my children or (gasp!) some time to myself - well, lets just say I've had enough. Now, don't beat up Ace (because he reads this) - he does contribute, its just not enough and his standards aren't quite as high as mine. But if want to save our sanity (and our marriage, apparently, lol), something has GOT to give.

So...we decided to hire back our cleaning service. They come twice a month and do all the deep cleaning. We'll still have the basic every day stuff (which is more than enough, believe you me) to do, but this will at least ensure that twice a month, my house is clean, and I don't have to do it! Maybe now I can get to some of the other projects (like writing thank you notes for Bennett's birthday...) that get strewn to the wayside. Screw being frugal - I'd rather be sane!!

So, don't picture me naked and screaming with a kid hanging off my chest...but do picture my house clean and tidy and me calm and relaxed :) That's the hope at least!!!!