{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real}

Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life...

{Pretty}

Take a moment and ooh and aah over Ellie's neat room with me. 

Are you done?  Good.  Let me tell you a short little story about how her room came to be pretty neat.  Last Thursday after sending her to her room four, yes, FOUR 1, 2, 3, 4, times to clean her room and each time her room was more atrocious than the last I got pretty irate.  Mom's gone crazy and broke out the drum liner sized trash bags irate. Ellie went to the Phillie's game with Madeline and her Daddy and I went to work. Bryan told me not to clean her room, so I did as he asked and decided to toss some of the trash I found in her room and then went to the basement where I went nuts tossing things that my children can't be bothered to put away.  Problem solved!

Anyway, let's get back to Ellie's room.  On Friday morning when I came home from Mass she was still "cleaning" her room and I decided that I had to get involved.  So I came back with the trash bag and two laundry baskets.  All of the stuffed animals that are really good at hiding clean and dirty clothing were deported.  The Little People toys that have sat on her wall shelves her entire life were removed and a big ol' bag o' trash was removed from her room.  I then put her American Girl dolls and the select few stuffed animals that were granted diplomatic immunity up on the out of her reach wall shelves.  I helped her organize the room and I'm happy to say that six whole days later her room is still as neat as what you see in the pictures above.  It's a miracle.

I think the threat of the trash bag's second coming, which I have warned her is something she needs to be ready for because she will not know the hour or day on which it will happen, has motivated her to keep the room neat.  I go in her room a couple times a day now to make sure the drawers, under her bed, and the closet are as they should be.  She knows that when the trash bag comes again I will not discern between trash and treasure.  

Madeline's room has not been cleaned by me but she's aware that the trash bag is coming and anything not in it's proper place will take a trip to the trash when it comes.  Be alert, Madeline!

{Happy}

 

Before Bryan had to go over to the soccer club to do registrations and fundraiser ticket distribution last night we played a few rounds of Bananagrams.  Once he left the girls started breaking out other games which haven't seen the light of day in ages.  I suspect it's because I mentioned to Bryan that I was going to get rid of some of the games since they never get used. (They clearly took that as a sign of the second coming of the trash bag.)  The girls spent the next two hours playing games and GETTING ALONG!  That left Katie and I to read stories and watch Disney movies.  I was very happy to see the girls getting along and playing games even if some of the games like the ones in this picture are for the ages 3 and up set.

{Funny}

For years Ellie's wall shelf was decorated with a few special baby outfits and dress up clothes.  I took them down on Friday because I realized they encouraged her to hang what ever she didn't feel like hanging up in the closet on the brackets, too.  I washed all of the too small for Ellie clothes and was getting ready to put them in the hand me down boxes when I found Katie stuffing herself into a pair of 3-6 month pants.  She was proud of her self for getting the pants right but she was a bit frustrated that she couldn't pull them up all the way.  She's such a silly little person.

{Real}

We're going for the asymmetrical look.  It's the latest trend in rough house chic.

As we ahem, Bryan and Madeline were preparing dinner last night and I was just standing there talking to Bryan we heard a loud crash in the living room where Ellie and Katie were playing.  I rushed into the room to find my curtain rod ripped out of the wall on one side.  I honestly don't know what happened.  Ellie tells me that Katie did it by hiding in the curtains and pulling on them.  Who knows? I do know that Ellie pulled the pantry door off once upon a time.  This looked an awful lot like her handiwork.  I suppose it's possible that I have a little Wreck-it-Ralph on my hands now.  Would you believe that the screws were ripped out of a stud?  We discovered that this morning when Bryan went to put sinkers in the wall so we could hang the curtain rod.  Never a dull moment around here!  And the curtains?  I haven't even bothered to look at them to see if they're still intact.  I won't be surprised if they got ripped in the process.  

I will say that I successfully managed to not yell at anyone for ripping the curtain rod clear off the wall. I just recalled what Fr. M. had said to me at the youth group breakfast that morning about how the kids still don't have fully developed frontal lobes.  So we'll chalk this up to them not having fully developed brains.  Perhaps that little bit of information will be the key to me being more patient.

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment and a pictures of Deirdre's sweet little newborn girl.