Clean-ish

I had a conversation with a mom of one of Lucy' friends today outside of school.  She said that she got up every morning at 6:15am to clean her house.  She cleans for an hour and a half every morning and the house is always clean, she can always have folks over without worrying about the status of her house, etc.  I was thinking, huh!  Anyone  who knows me knows that I couldn't get up that early every morning to clean, and we still have little kids that will wake if they hear that someone is up in the am and so on and so on.  What my mind failed to mention was what a joke that would be in my house. It would go something more like this: wake up, clean for a couple of hours, then watch as the kids destroy the house in ten minutes.  Don't believe me?  Here is my actual day- today.  Yes, all of these events actually happened TODAY, in one day, actually in just a couple of hours.

• Get kids ready to school, with Ian's help. 
• See Lucy off to school with neighbors as I get Harper ready for dance class.
• We have 15 minutes to kill so I make beds, clean up breakfast mess.  Clean up after Graham poured Harper's milk all over the floor.  Walk around house to pick up pajamas, random socks, toys and books.
• Go to dance, grocery and back home
• Unload and put away groceries.  Start load of laundry, put away consignment sale items so that Lucy doesn't see what I am selling and reclaim it all as her own.
• Walk to get Lucy.  Stopped twice to pick up Graham's shoes that he tossed out of the stroller. 
• On way home, stop once to pick up Graham's socks that he tossed out.
• Make lunch, clean up an entire bowl of applesauce that Graham tossed over his high chair.  Clean up applesauce that Harper "cleaned" off of her tutu and leotard.  Clean up lunch dishes, table, floor.
• Clean up second milk spill of the day- this time it was Lucy's.
• Notice that Graham has a wet shirt.  Continue cleaning up toys, dusting and sweeping floors.  See Graham come walking out of my room, with Harper's toilet insert.  Realize what that WET spot was on his shirt.  Go into bathroom.  See that Graham has poured out Harper's full potty, on himself and all over the floor.  Clean up urine from the bathroom, off of Graham, off the floor of my room, off the floor in the hallway, Graham's room and then search for the missing potty insert that Graham somehow got ahold of again.  Grab toothpaste tube from Graham's quick little hands before he actually makes another mess.
• Clean windows.
• Notice Harper and Graham making rasberries on just-cleaned windows, then watch Graham lick his hands and "write" on the same "clean" windows.  Watch Harper take off Halloween window clings, lick them, and then put them back onto the window.  Wonder why I bothered.
• Take out recycling, and diaper trash.  Walk back inside and notice that Graham has on a lethal-smelling diaper.  Put nasty diaper into the once-was-fresh-diaper pail.
• Notice that there are not one, not two, but three (and a half!) snot smears on the new couch.  Clean them of and then notice that Harper is sprinkling fairy wing glitter onto the same couch.  Sweep front room, again, to rid us of some of the glitter.
• Get kids ready for nap.  Pick up toys, wipe down kitchen.

That was the first half of the day.  I think I'll skip the am cleaning sessions and stay in bed and dream of a clean house.