10 More Things, Episode 5

By Staci Pace

And continues…

41.  Go ahead and get used to saying: “Stop that.” “Don’t do that.” “Put that down.” “Be quiet.” You’ll never stop.
42.  You’ll quickly learn why your mom made some meals over and over again. And then you’ll ask her for the recipes. 
43.  Don’t ever tell your children that they have to pick up their toys or you’ll throw them away. Because the problem is that they don’t want to pick them up in the first place, and they’d rather you do it for them. Not to mention, what will you do tomorrow when they’re bored?
44.  You have to set ground rules with your spouse early on about discipline. Because when a kid is grounded from outside and friends it’s not really punishment for them as much as you. 
45.  At least one of your children will eat their boogers, one will wipe them on everything and one will try to give them to you, but they all will pick them.
46.  No matter how many times you tell them not to they will wipe their hands on their clothes. 
47.  Some areas of your house will always smell like pee no matter how many times you scrub them.
48.  A parent with all girls just won’t understand a parent with all boys and vice versa.
49.  At some point you will wish that you could arrange a marriage for your child, and possibly as early as 12.
50.  Baking with your child is NOT NEARLY as fun as it sounds.

This article was originally posted on Jesus Had A Mama.

Episode 1: 10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Had Kids

Episode 2: 10 More Things I Wish I Knew

Episode 3: 10 More Things, Episode 3

Episode 4: 10 More Things, Episode 4

Episode 5: 10 More Things, Episode 5

25 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Clean Your House Right Now

25 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Clean Your House Right Now

1. There is snow, mud, rain, dirt, dust, a stinky smell (you get the idea) outside and if you clean now, that will just get tracked in and you’ll have to clean again.
2. Your daughter keeps begging you to color with her, and a good mom would definitely choose her over cleaning. What does it matter if you’ve already been coloring with her for hours and she lost interest a long time ago?
3. Your back has been hurting and you know if you start cleaning like a fiend it will go completely out of alignment and you’ll need to go to the chiropractor and you’re trying to save money, so it would be better to wait to clean when your back feels better.
4. Your friend is coming over for coffee and you don’t want her to feel bad that your house is clean and hers isn’t. So you’ll just be “real” and help her feel better.
5. You’ve really been trying to be more environmentally friendly but none of your cleaning supplies fit the bill, so you should just wait till after your trip to the store that isn’t planned for 3 more days.
6. Your husband will come home tonight and believe that you’ve got such a great handle on things at home that it’s time to get that part time job you’ve talked about.
7. It’s Thursday. It’s so close to the weekend, and you know how the house gets trashed on the weekend. You better wait till Monday.
8. It’s Monday, and you had a crazy weekend, so you should really rest up today so you have enough energy for the rest of the week.
9. The vacuum replacement parts haven’t come in yet since your son broke them using them as light sabers for his Star Wars game. What’s the point of cleaning if you can’t vacuum?
10. Your mother is coming over and if she sees the house clean she won’t feel sorry enough for you to offer to keep the kids tomorrow so you can clean (AKA read a book, drink coffee, and take a nap in your quiet house).
11. There are several birthdays coming up soon (everyone has birthdays once a year!), so you should probably get out there and start shopping for the perfect gifts!
12. Tomorrow is your son’s class party and those cookies aren’t going to cook themselves. I realize you already bought a pack of brownies at the store for him to take, but homemade cookies are a much better representative of what kind of mother you are. Best wait till tomorrow to clean and get crackin’ on those cookies!
13. You have several friends who have been waiting for you to comment on their Facebook posts, so you should really sit down and get to those before they think you’ve forgotten them.
14. The dog has really been moping around lately. You should just sit with her on the couch with a blanket and give her the attention she’s been craving. And why not catch a few episodes of Downton Abbey while your sitting?
15. Your kids will be home from school in a couple of hours and you should really involve them more in the work around the house, so you should just wait till they get home and finish their homework. Maybe they’ll actually be done before dinner, but the house cleaning can always wait till tomorrow if they aren’t.
16. Your kids are home and everyone knows you can’t clean a house with kids still in it. You should wait till they go to school tomorrow. Or better yet, maybe wait till they move out!
17. Your husband is home for a day off and is playing/watching a game. You really don’t want to interrupt his only day off this week with stressful cleaning. You should just wait till he goes back to work.
18. You really need to learn how to relax and not be such a control freak. It would do you a lot of good to just let the house go this week. Maybe you will have learned to relax by next week. (But, if not, it is a very serious goal of yours to become less controlling…)
19. Sure there’s a lot of cleaning to be done, but really you have so much laundry to do! You should just focus on that today.
20. Next week you’re planning on rearranging some furniture. You’ll be able to clean better and get underneath all that stuff once you move it. You should wait till then.
21. Your kids have been complaining of being stuck in the house so you should take them out to Chik-fil-a for the afternoon instead of forcing them to stay cooped up while you clean.
22. You’ve really needed to go through your closet for months now. I think today would be better spent doing that. And organizing your sock drawer. And your panty drawer. And your pajama drawer. Actually any drawer that might be easy to rearrange that could keep you from cleaning. Just stay busy…
23. Your girlfriend has really been having a rough time. You should meet her at Starbucks today. Maybe the one in Target so you can get a little shopping done, too!
24. The dog’s grooming appointment (AKA your son washing him in the bathtub) isn’t for a few days. It would really be pointless to clean before then because he would just get his dirty hair all over everything.
25. Everyone has been telling you that you should blog more and you have a really great idea for one about not cleaning your house. You should sit down and write that instead.

Which reason is your favorite? And since we could all use more reasons, feel free to share any other ideas here!

Does a Water Walker have to have a clean house???

I shared a room with my beautiful sister, Kelli, most of my young life. I have very vivid memories of my mother checking over our bedroom, which we claimed was clean, only to discover our stash under the bed, the closet on the next check, and on the final failed inspection – in our drawers. I don’t think we pulled all three of those in one day ever, ever again. One thing about sharing a room with someone: you learn a lot about your own bad habits (and of course the one’s of the opposite party, but I won’t include my sister’s bad habits in this blog for fear of my life ;)). The way Kelli puts it I always took good care of my things, just not in a very neat fashion. Somehow I did not get that “clean” gene. How did that pass me by??