I am sitting in my kitchen in a wing back chair that is stuffed between that couch and our pantry. There is only one piece of furniture in our living room, and absolutely nothing in either of the girls’ rooms. The back porch, hallway, and our bedroom are crammed full of children’s clothes, dresser drawers, and side tables. All of this so that we could have three rooms of carpets cleaned.

MONTHS ago I bought an online deal for carpet cleaning. We have potty trained 2 1/2 kids in this house and the cleaning needed to be done; the marker on the carpet was just the kick in the pants needed to get the job done.

When I called at the end of January to make an appointment, they told me they were booked until May. My Daily Deal expired April 24! (yes, that’s today) The lady talked to her supervisor and they tacked on an appointment for me today. I asked a few questions and hung up thrilled that the plan was in place and our lives would barely be affected since someone professional was coming in to do the job.

Last week I realized that I couldn’t very well move all the furniture myself and I asked Jeremy to take a couple hours off to get the place ready. At 3:00pm today I realized that our house has eight rooms – two are bathrooms, three were having their carpets cleaned, and the other three were overflowing with furniture. This was only a concern because we have three children who needed somewhere to be. AND it came to my attention that the carpets would be damp and our children would need somewhere to sleep tonight.

My precious Honey came home at 4:00 and rearranged the mess so that there would be places for everyone to sleep. Bubba’s bus dropped him off just minutes before the cleaning folks arrived and our Landlord chose that exact time to arrive with his son-in-law to replace the garbage disposal. CHAOS AND CRAZINESS!

But, now it’s all “over”. The kids and I went through a drive-thru and to a park for a picnic dinner before coming home for baths and bedtime. KB is asleep on a mattress on Bubba’s floor and Little is sleeping on a mattress by our bed. The carpets are clean, the disposal is new, and from where I am sitting all is well in the world. Of course my view IS obstructed by a couch. . .

The whole term “play date” is soo 2000-whatever.  When I was growing up I would just ask, “Mom, can Julie come over?” but now that I am the mom I hear, “Mom, Nolan wants a play date.”

I promptly respond with, “We’ll have to talk to Mrs. L and see when Nolan can come over and play.”  I am NOT going to start using the term “date” with my four-year old.  I just can’t do it.  Especially since so many of my friends have sons.

I KNOW I am making a bigger deal of this than may need to be made, but I am sure you have a silly soap box too.

Anyway, one family friend lives a bit further out from the school and one of her sons is in KB’s class and the other son goes to school with Lily.  One day I suggested that Matthew come over to play after school and then we could bring him out to Promise to meet his mommy in carpool.  Amy didn’t hesitate to say yes and rumor has it she took a long nap that day. . . anyway, KB and Matthew had super fun for a couple of hours.

And no one felt pressure to impress the other, Matthew didn’t have to pay for lunch or the movie they watched, and it was never necessary to slow down and define their relationship.  They just had fun being four.

My sweet friend Julia wrote to ask if I wanted a set of chairs that had been hers as a little girl.  She said her mom had come across them and thought my girls would enjoy them.  In the picture they looked like chairs KB and Lily would sit in but when Julia brought them to me, I realized they were for dolls and I just couldn’t wait to see KB’s response.

She slept with them that night.
No lie.

The next day I walked into the kitchen to find this:

Yeah – that’s a stick of jerky.  
And Naomi is naked.
And my daughter is AWESOME.