It's no secret that I run a tight ship and like a tidy house. Or at least I try to. On the surface the house generally looks tidy, with the exception of a few of Alexander's toys here and there. I was brought up to have my home ready to welcome any unexpected guest. There, of course, have been times when the house is not to my expectation. Times when it looks like a toy store threw up in every room of the house. But if you were to drop by, say in 5 minutes the only thing you would find are last night's pots and pans that were left out to dry on the stove and 4 sleeping bodies. I try to make sure that everything is picked up in the morning -- if not before we leave for school, then as soon as I get back from dropping the kids off. I am trying to instill the importance of bed-making. A tidy bed can mean a tidy room even if not everything is put away. A messy bed? Fugheddaboud it! I have to have my bed made. Have to! And if for some reason I don't get to it -- I relax a bit more over the weekend -- then I have to make it before I crawl in at the end of the day. I can't get in to a messy bed! Isn't that just the silliest thing, really?

I have a messy little secret. Well many of them. You see I am a Jammer and a Shover! It's easy to get everything off counters and table tops and coffee tables and couches when you can take this item and shove it! Seriously! As a result many cabinets and drawers are bursting at the seams. Add my "shoviness" to a certain little 4 year old who likes to rummage through my stuff and mess up my messes even more. Add to my desk drawer chaos some odd crayons, erasers, stickers, game pieces, plastic robots. And, I've even given him his own drawer in my desk!

I have been waiting for months to be able to do some serious spring cleaning, but due to injuries, sick kids, life, more sick kids and more sick kids I haven't had a moment at home to myself. Until yesterday. I dropped off the kids and returned home only to leave again at the end of the day to pick them up.

While I was home I Twitted and Facebooked and emailed and did some letter writing for the auction I am co-chairing I did nothing but sort through drawers and cabinets and do loads of laundry, washing blankets and pillow cases from the family and play rooms, not to mention the laundry basket that went from empty to over the top full in a matter of 24 hours.

The Tupperware no longer falls out onto my feet when I open the cabinet. I know what I have in my desk, and Alexander's things are where they belong. My food pantry is now clean and tidy. (Did I really need three containers of dried apricots?) It felt so good to do this. I have more to do. I need to go up to the play room and weed out the toys that no longer get played with. But what to do with them? It's hard to donate toys. Goodwill won't take anything due to potential lead and whatever hazards. I will continue yestterday's work on Thursday. Unless I happen to have a kid home from school again today. I know, I know, say it ain't so! But we had a mighty pink eye that we did treat with antibiotic eye drops. We'll see how he is when he wakes up!

I have so much more to do. The drawer in my bedside table is crowded with magazines, catalogs, assorted artwork from assorted children, Chapsticks, pens, broken pencils, barrettes, little plastic army guys, various pieces of various jigsaw puzzles, and you get the idea. My sock and underwear drawers could use a bit of tidying. Everything is haphazardly tossed in them. I have a friend who has several underwear drawers. Each piece is color coded. Color coded?! I have the blacks and the whites and the reds and everything in between all smooshed in there together.

And now Behind Closed Doors... or Beware of What Lies Beneath!

We are so lazy we toss our empty boxes down the stairs!

Notice Sam Adams just lying there in the middle of nowhere! Hmm, that's a good sized box for a craft for Alexander... note to self!

waiting to be able to redo the office and these will go in there! Meantime, tossed in the basement...

Ahhh! Welcome to Fifth Grade Science! I asked her what was so inappropriate, this was a science book after all. She went on to tell me that that shouldn't be in there! I then told her that most likely her teacher would be teaching this in class since it is, after all in her science book. "But not in 5th grade!" she replied incredulously. "Is it a 6th grade text book too?" I asked. She shook her head no. And I smiled. She turned beet red and her eyes widened. "NO!" she exclaimed! "We're not talking about that with the boys!" And then she added an " Oh how embarrassing!"