Magic and Mayhem

Yesterday the kids spent a long time outside since the weather had warmed up a bit. At one point I saw Annalee outside shoveling the drive and otherwise I figured the kids were just making snowmen and playing. I was busy with the baby and a new mystery novel so I really didn’t pay much attention.

Later Victoria came in and asked me to come see something outside. I figured she made a snow sculpture or something. I followed her out and she opened up both my car doors to reveal a completely cleaned out car!

We only use my little car when I take the kids on road trips to Tiffany’s and such, so it mostly sits buried in snow. There had been tons of stuff left in it from our last trip (ten hours round trip with 4 kids means lots of little stuff!) and I kept meaning to clean it out when the days warmed up.

It turns out she went out to find a coloring book, noticed some things that needed to be thrown away and then just kept going! She got every single scrap, every broken crayon, every toy, everything! All that was left was the road atlas on the seat!

I told her she knows the way to my heart. LOL

She spent about 2 hours outside doing this just to make me happy, bless her heart. And Victoria enjoys cleaning about as much as I do, which is slightly less than a root canal.

Then last night I started organizing Jack and Anna’s room. Jack came in, asked what I was doing, found out I was cleaning and offered to help. He stayed with me and helped sort legos, find pieces and otherwise clean what had been a very messy room.

Annalee also asked me yesterday if it would be okay if she made Victoria’s bed to make it pretty for her! I said sure and she carefully made it as pretty as she could and then asked me to help with the finishing touches. She is also the only child in the free world who actually asks if she can clean the toilet!

These are little things perhaps but I am so proud of the kids for volunteering to do all of these things, completely on their own! I have always been a messy person and it’s a constant struggle for me to not only get the house under control but to manage to teach my kids how to be better at it than I am.

I really want my kids to not only become good at keeping a house, but to enjoy doing it. I’ve been getting much better at that myself and we’re all starting to really pull together as a team and find what things we each like to do to help out. I’m beginning to feel there is hope for us all.