I don't get paid for my work anymore.  I haven't been paid for nearly 8 years now.  Ironically, I work far harder and with far fewer breaks than I ever had when I had a paying job.  I get paid in kisses now.

I have been working on getting my house cleaner.  This has been a real issue this winter because I've had a little bit of seasonal depression.  I don't think it's anything to get help for, but it does affect how much I get done around here.  The past week has been really sunny and I've been so much more motivated!  Except today, unfortunately, because it's acting like it's winter and raining...and it's supposed to continue the rest of the week.

I took some before and after pictures for motivation yesterday.  I am not going to post them all because I don't want to risk being turned in for house neglect (hahaha!), but I will post a few.  My kitchen was pretty messy.  I think no one else ever puts anything away!!

Here's a counter in the kitchen:

Isn't that horrible?!  Here is how it looks now....

So much better!  You could SEE yourself in those tiles!!  Woohoo!!  Here's another counter...I don't know what happened here...
Seriously, cassette tapes?  We don't even have a tape player!!  Wait,we do...but it isn't used!!

Isn't that better?  Did you even realize that there were actually fish in that tank?  I think they didn't know that there were humans outside of it!
Now, the front bathroom is a sore spot for me.  There are 8 people living in my house right now and 6 of them routinely use that bath.
This is what I see nearly every morning when I go into the bathroom.  How depressing, right?  This is how it looks after I take a mere 3 minutes:

Now that's a bathroom people won't be afraid to use, unless, of course, they have a phobia of sea shells.

This morning I continued my cleaning.  I hit the kids' book basket in the living room.  I intended to just straighten up the books and the liner but then I discovered all sorts of treasures hiding in there.  I pulled them out and took a picture so I would have proof.  I cannot believe what was lurking in that thing!

That's right.  These items were in the book basket.  There's gum wrappers, a pen, band-aids, a super ball...but then it just gets weird.  That's a tube of cream blusher.  And a really beat-up hairbrush.  The straw to an organic milk.  A stick from a corn dog.  A chicken bone!!  Yes, a CHICKEN BONE!!!  Were they eating while reading?  Those raisins....they weren't raisins when they entered the basket, I can assure you of that.  They were still grapes at the time.  Scissors....why scissors?  And Reece's new sock.  I got him a pack of socks and haven't been able to find one since I opened it.  Well, silly me, I should have been checking in the book basket!

That's a small taste of my life around here.

Life here is normal.  Just normal.  The days don't seem to be much different one from the next.  The house is never the same as I wish it to be.  I work on it and it gets a little closer and then the kids seem to notice that something isn't quite right, that something is not the was it was.  And then they realize...the house is clean!!  Immediately, without forethought, they work in tandem to mess it up to its former messy glory.  The toys are dragged back out from their places and into the living room...the dining room...the hall...the bathroom...the kitchen.  Food materializes mysteriously on my just-swept floors.  Where does it come from?  I am surprised that we don't have rodents running about with abandon.

My back decided to go out on me last night.  How rude, right?  I stood up from the house and it started to spasm, each twinge shooting a sharp darting pain through my body.  I still changed the litter box because the smell was about to knock me out.  I swear, not 10 minutes earlier the thing did not smell.  I think that cat has super-urine.  Anyhow...my back hurt and I was grumpy.  I went to bed and proceeded to not sleep well because, well, my back hurt.  I was supposed to get up this morning and go to church, but I had a feeling that I could not sit in a pew all morning and be able to walk afterward.  I called my mom and told her I wasn't going to make it to church. She said she would take Anayla. 

Anayla was up and getting ready.  She may as well go, even if I couldn't.  Alicia got up and decided she wanted to go, too.  They both got ready for church.  My mom came and got the girls and brought me some Aleve because somehow we had run out of it.  I proceeded to doze on the couch.  Reece finally got up and wandered out into the living room.  He carefully cuddled with me and we dozed off and on.  He roused enough to ask for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so I carefully eased up and made one for him.  It sounded pretty good so I made one for myself.  Oh, it was heaven!!  I do not know the last time I had a PB&J!!!!  The mere stickiness of the peanut butter makes me shy away, not because I can't wash my hands but because it tends to stick to my belly and thighs!!

My mom and Dan brought the girls back from church and my mom checked on me.  She helped Alicia change her clothes.  I know that Ali is 8, but for some reason she is on this kick where she wants us to help her pick out her clothes.  As if it was that hard to pick a sweat suit and T-shirt.  Mom left and I was alone with the kids.  I continued to try to get some rest.  Yeah, right!  The kids were in top form, fighting over everything from who had a certain toy to who was breathing too much.  They didn't start out that way.  They were getting along just fine.  So well, in fact, that I agreed to help them make cupcakes.  Alicia got a princess cupcake kit for Christmas and was dying to use it.  They both helped with the ingredients and she stirred it (100 times!).  They put the papers in the muffin tins and I poured in the batter and we stuck it in the oven.  They sat in front of the door and watched through the glass as the cupcakes rose.

Such happy family bliss!

Then the fighting began.  I don't know how it started.  I don't know all that was involved.  All  I know is, I did not enjoy it.  I was so upset with them by the time the cupcakes cooled that I was not about to help them frost those things!  Karnette and her girls came home and Lindsay finally agreed to help them.  They decorated the cupcakes and Alicia came around and gave one to everyone.  I have to say, that mix wsn't the best.  They must have made the frosting extra sweet to make up for the fact that the cake was not sweet at all.  But we still ate them.

Now, it's late at night and my back is feeling a little better.  Of course, I took more Aleve for my back.  I'm waiting for Anayla to get back from her formal.  Tonight is the winter formal.  She spent a couple of hours getting ready and looking beautiful and then I dropped her off.  I did take a few pictures and she promised to take lots more.  I'll have to post them later.  Right now, I think I'm going to take a nap.