Finding Balance

My job as a stay-at-home mom is to take care of the kids and run the house. Who knew these two things could be so incompatible at times? And not just because the kids make messes faster than I can clean them up.

Here's the real dilemma: Do I play Ring Around the Rosie with my one year olds or tackle the bathtub rings? Do I join my daughter in rearranging her dollhouse, or do I clean my own house? Hopscotch or hot meals? Coloring or clean clothes? Dolls or dishes?

I thought I left the whole work-life balance issues behind when I left my career. Turns out I have the same struggles, but at least now I get to contend with these challenges while wearing comfortable shoes and my favorite pair of jeans.

Now clearly, some things have to be done. Kids must be diapered and fed. Dishes and highchair trays have to get cleaned. Food has to be swept up from the floor...at least once a day anyway. Necessary, but not nearly as much fun as giggling with the kids or as rewarding as teaching my boys where their noses are.

I try to do what chores I can during nap time, but there's no way I can get everything taken care of in a couple hours a day. The trick, as always, is deciding what HAS to be done and what can wait or get skipped now and then.

Just like magazine models give us an unrealistic expectation of what a woman should look like, home and family magazines do the same. Is it realistic to expect a perfectly clean, organized home, made-from-scratch meals and cute treats to boot when I've got four kids age 3 and under? No more realistic than being a six-foot tall size 0 with a flawless complexion.

Yes, I know that a clean home and good meals are part of raising my children in a good environment. But what kid wouldn't trade a kitchen floor that's mopped daily for 20 minutes of playtime with mom? Or a lunch plate that looks like a clown face for parental face time?

It's all about balance.

I try to keep that in mind as I look around my house. True, we're not making it into House Beautiful, or even Better Homes and Gardens anytime soon. Not with that pile of laundry to be folded, today's mail (and yesterday's too) lying on the kitchen table, and more than one toy not put away in its proper place.

I figure we're doing OK as long as we aren't in danger of being on one of those HGTV messy house shows.

And I’d say we’re a couple thousand rounds of Ring Around the Rosie away from that happening.

P.S.: After I first posted this a friend of mine sent me a comment by email. She said her mom had a sign in her house that said, "My home: Clean enough to be healthy and dirty enough to be happy." My new mantra!

Kitchen Remodel

Every kitchen remodel must start with a wrecking crew, right?

Isaac, Sam and Alex show how quickly they can take the kitchen apart.

These guys are for hire if you're interested. They are thorough and can do the job in about 6.7 seconds.

The boys spend much of their time in the playroom/family room behind the big gate, so I like to let them roam a little every day. If we can't get outside, I will gate off the kitchen, lock and duct tape the cabinets I don't want them in and turn them loose.

You see what they can do in no time flat!

Thanks to this wrecking crew, I have had to move almost everything to the top two shelves of my pantry. I left unopened boxes and cans on the lower shelves for the boys to play with until this happened:

Hungry much, guys?

But, they have a great time. Which makes the cleanup almost worth it!

Insult or Exellent Marketing?

Today a lady came to my door. She was in the neighborhood putting fliers for her house cleaning business on people's mailboxes.

Turns out that she saw my triple stroller attached to the back of the van so, "I thought I'd knock."

Insult or savvy marketing?

I Tweeted about the incident and the jury is still out.

One person wanted to know if it was Mary Poppins. Ha! Don't I wish. No carpet bag and no brolly, so no luck there.

Another wanted to know if I asked for a free sample. Shoot. Wish I had thought of that.

Mission Impossible

I was at a friend's house recently. It was immaculate. The beds were all made. Fresh towels hung in her powder room. The soap dispenser was full. The kitchen sink was empty. The toys were neatly stowed. There was no sign anywhere of the 47 tons of paper that clutter my house at any given time. There were no handprints on the refrigerator or crushed Cheerios scattered across her kitchen floor.

It took all the willpower I possess not to bury my face in her freshly vacuumed carpet and beg her to adopt me.

My own house, which has been under assault by triplets for the past almost 10 months and will be for YEARS to come, is a little different.

For three weeks my living room looked like a children's thrift store while I attempted to sort through and store all of the kids' clothes we have rapidly outgrown. If it weren't for my sister's help (thanks, Judy!), it would probably still look like I was a Goodwill annex.

Paper piles up everywhere. Oh, we have systems. They just seem to do nothing to stem the never-ending flow of paper that comes into this house.

My fridge is cluttered with Amelia's art. Well, at least the top third is. Anything lower and the boys can get ahold of it now.

On a regular basis I walk around the house and throw all the mail, receipts and miscellaneous paper in a box and go through it. I weep a little bit for the forests when I do it.

I can't even bring myself to mention the laundry. My fellow multiples moms -- or any mom with more than one kid, for that matter -- know the pain of which I speak. It truly is the task that never, ever ends. And I don't even dress the triplets half the time!

Now that we are rapidly approaching the boys' first birthday, I've decided to turn a new leaf when it comes to the house. A fresh attitude! A positive outlook! A sign on my door that reads:

No need to remove your shoes,

No need to wipe your feet.

When it comes to clean,

We've got the problem beat.

All we need is this magic hint:

When you come inside, PLEASE SQUINT.

Jelly Doughnuts

The last couple of days my kids have been like jelly doughnuts -- sweet, but no matter how carefully you handle them some goo is going to come out.

Which leads me to a couple product recommendations:


1. Woolite Oxy Deep carpet cleaner -- The best spot cleaner for carpet I've found. Not only does it take care of the spit-up like a charm, it took out some older stains of unknown origin that I had tried unsuccessfully to remove with a different brand.

2. Kirkland household wipes -- This is a Costco product and comes in a three pack. Every time they are on sale I stock up. They are great for sanitizing door knobs, bathrooms and kitchens, but also for cleaning toys, the exersaucer, and the changing table following a particularly ill-timed diaper change...

3. OxiClean laundry spot remover -- The overenthusiastic Ron Popeil wanna-be who hawks this stuff on TV isn't exaggerating. It gets everything out. I keep a bottle upstairs to spray the worst stains as soon as I can. And I keep another bottle downstairs in the laundry room to catch anything I missed. It all comes out clean as a whistle.

And after a long day with triplets that requires the use of these three products, I recommend this:

And remember, if it doesn't work the first time you can always reapply!