The Busiest Time of Year

I love our annual "After Halloween Party," but I am so busy I don't have time to unpack!! And there are things out there that I really REALLY want unpacked!!! (I can't say I "need" them or they would have been unpacked already.)

I am so grumpy this morning!!! And it would cheer me up to unpack a bag of clothes (my mind has been recalling several items [mostly of children's clothing] that are missing from this house) or a crate or something!!! And I really need to start working on getting furniture in here or consider getting rid of it all together! Although it will soon be too cold to worry about furniture until Spring.

The kids have been less than helpful in keeping the house clean. I had most of it cleaned and party-ready, thinking if they could JUST pick up after themselves it would stay that way.

No.

I just about had a meltdown because there was a dried piece of bread crumbled into my floorboards, and a bowl of mac n' cheese sitting out all night.

I threatened all the children that if food keeps getting left out punishments will start becoming unreasonable and unignorable. We did not have the first bug OR mouse last winter!! And so far I've already seen evidence of a rodent (I left a bag of pistachios out and suddenly they were all shells with suspicious black pellet feces laying around. Proof enough for me!) and God help these children if I find a bug in this house!!

I told them this morning that AFTER THE PARTY (because WHY do they think the house has to be clean just for company? It should be clean ALL THE TIME!!!) every single time I find dirty dishes laying around or food left out EVERYONE will be grounded! [read: no wifi] And if no one can pick up after themselves it will go from being grounded one day to two, then three....I would certainly hope if everyone in the freaking house gets grounded for a WEEK just for a bowl of cereal being left out they would alter their behavior?

LET'S HOPE, because I can't live this way anymore....I can barely keep up with picking up after my husband...I can't do five kids as well anymore [not to mention 3 dogs, one of which is elderly and having more problems every day, two cats, a rabbit a tortoise and a turtle!! {although I don't really have to do very much with the turtle}.]

Well, I'm off to clean some more! I'm finishing the basement today. It would have been done a month ago but a certain teenager begged me to let them do it so they could earn money, then they never did anything. Now the party is Saturday and if we want the basement to be a haunted house it still needs to be cleaned up. So I will have to do it. For free.

I live the life, y'all. ;)