Housekeeping! You want mint for pillow? And it's Not Me! Monday!

It's "Not Me! Monday", where you can throw caution to the wind and tell everybody what you have not been doing this past week (you know, because telling them what you really did is far too embarassing!) To read about what others have definitely not been up to this week, go to Mckmama's blog.
I love cleaning and organizing. You usually won't be able to tell this by coming to my house, but I honestly do enjoy cleaning and having an organized, pleasant looking and smelling house. The only time I hate cleaning is when when I'm tired or when things have gotten too messy or out of control that it seems overwelming. Of course that never happens around here. I'm purely speaking in a "hypothetical" sense (read pathetical).

We are trying to alleviate this "hypothetical" problem by getting the kids involved in daily and weekly chores, and by nagging them constantly consistently reminding them to pick up after themselves. We have a job board hanging in our pantry - it's actually a wipe off board with calendar grids on it and it works very well (7 columns for 7 days of the week, and 5 rows for 5 kids). The kids each have a daily job (loading or unloading the dishwasher, setting the table, taking out garbage or recycling, and taking care of the dogs.) They each have a laundry day and on that day they are responsible for bringing their own hamper to the laundry room and when their clothes are done, putting them away. We do it this way so that we don't have 7 people's laundry all mixed together. It's so much easier when it actually happens this way, which of course it always does. Eh-hem. They also each have a weekly cleaning job, such as cleaning a bathroom, vacuuming & dusting a living room, or the entryway and stairs, and they have to do their bedrooms once a week too.

Sounds like a beautiful, fool proof system doesn't it? Well, my friend, it is. It always works perfectly, like a well oiled machine. Vince and I are masters at being consistent with follow through, and the kids never exhibit any complaining or eye rolling or try to weasel their way out of things. And of course OUR bedroom and bathroom are always clean and mess free so that we can present a shining example to our children. What do ya think? Gosh!

On top of all of that daily nonsense, we are slowly but surely (I do know how to fly this plane, and don't call me Shirley) getting projects done around the house. We were busy bees this past weekend! We finally bought real doors for Nick & Vinny's bedrooms, which Vince promptly installed when we got home from our trip to Menards on Saturday. This was a big improvement from the blankets that have not been tacked over their doorways for the past almost year! They look nice and we were pretty excited about surprising the boys with their new doors when they got home. (Author's note: yes, we do realize that it is pathetic when your kid's "surprise" is getting a door on his room, but hey, we want them to appreciate the little things.) Upon seeing their new doors, they lept for joy into our arms and told us that we are the best parents ever!! They certainly did not say "oh, a door. thanks."

In addition to all that excitement, we got the kitchen island done (which has not been without trim for the past year), put new blinds in Vinny's room and our master bedroom, and I finally put my collection of baskets back on top of the fireplace ~ now that I have finished packing away my village which has not been there since Christmas. Yes, really. Don't judge me. And after all that, and bookoo loads of laundry, we intended to shampoo some carpets so that certain areas of our house don't smell like a locker room just to freshen things up a bit. However, we ran out of time and energy. We'll get to it. Baby steps. In the mean time, baking soda on carpets and inside sweaty boys' shoes works wonders.

Besides all the work, we had some time to play too! Friday night we spend the evening at our son Trevor's girlfriend's home, having some yummy grilled fillet mignon and potatoes, several desserts (all of which involved chocolate!) and playing 500. Then on Saturday Mr. Wonderful and I had a *date night*! Dinner at Green Mill and a few hours of uninterupted conversation with my man was pure heaven!

Oh and besides incorporating some random movie quotes in this post just because I can and it's fun, I leave you with this video clip, which captures the essense of our life with our 5 wonderful children in ways that I could not otherwise describe...