I often wonder why my house is a disaster, and why a seemingly empty day comes to an end and nothing was accomplished. I'll admit, it's mostly because I'd rather waste time on the computer, at the Y, or talking to friends (not that those are a waste of time) than cleaning toilets. The other day, though, was a clear validation that it's not all due to my laziness and procrastination.
Some girls from an old small group were coming over, and Eve's friend Claire was coming too. When Eve said she was still hungry after breakfast and dropping John at school, I suggested we make some chocolate chip muffins. I got everything ready at the table so she could help. We poured 2 pouches of mix into the bowl and I walked the few steps across the kitchen to throw them away. And then I learned a valuable lesson in cooking...Never turn your back. When I turned around, the entire contents of the milk jug had been emptied into the bowl...about 1/3 gallon (only slightly more than the 1 cup required). And so began our day. I poured all the flour we had and some extra chocolate chips into the bowl, greased a cake pan, and put our experiment into the oven.
While I was fixing that mess, I heard the water running in the bathroom. Eve was washing her hands. After a while, when the "muffins" were almost in the oven, water still running, I asked Eve what was going on. She emerged from the bathroom with her arms lubed up with thick liquid soap to the elbows. I asked her not to touch anything (which we all know is an open invitation to touch everything in sight) and go to the bathroom so I could help her wash it off. With every wall, toy, and piece of furniture soaped up, I led her into the bathroom only to find the hand towel soaked and sudsy in the sink and the floor covered with water. We cleaned the soap off her arms, and I sent her off to play while I cleaned this mess. Who knew soap and water could make such a mess.
Meanwhile, "Uh oh, I spilled my medicine." Fortunately it was just water. Eve has been filling a baby bottle with water and calling it medicine. I gave her a towel to clean that up and noticed that multiple containers were set out by the sink (half of them dirty dishes) filled with water as well. I'm not sure what the plan was there, but at this point I banned her from the sink.
Later on during nap time, she empied the contents of her dresser onto the floor in her room. While we were folding clothes, the "organized" the socks by mixing them with dirty socks and redistributing them throughout the house.
This was days ago, so I can't even remember what all happened...Oh, at one point I heard her flushing the toilet multiple times...that never ends well. I ran into the bathroom to try to prevent another huge water mess. The water was teasing the edge of the bowl, and the bowl was filled with a ball of toilet paper that couldn't possibly have come from only one roll. Fortunately it was just a # 1 because I couldn't think of any other way to fix this than grabbing the ball of paper out with my hand, and transporting it into the kitched trash via the dogs' water bowl (poor dogs...don't worry, I cleaned it out).
So, I have a feeling there was more because the whole day was literally one mess to the next. Every time I turned my head to fight one fire, she started another. There was one time period we called her "Destructo". I thought she had grown out of it. Apparently wishful thinking. Whew! That was a long day.
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