Personal Challenge - Day 4

As the lovely housewife I am, I was charged with cleaning up the many messes the children made throughout the house. The many people that visit my house probably don't think it's such a chore to keep up on cleaning my house, but if anyone of you saw the mess these kiddos create in ONE day, you'd be amazed at the amount of work I have to put into the house in order to keep it clean. Here are some before and after pictures to share some examples.
Here is the worst room in the house, where the family spends most of their time. Toys get brought out here from the kids' rooms, books come flying off the bookshelf, and Bri's favorite hobby (coloring) get scattered throughout the room.

Here is the after picture. You can actually see the new curtains we put up! I love them, they make such a difference in here!

The dining room is also another "catch all" place. When ever someone walks in the door, everything goes straight to this table.

Ah, soo much better! I love that my living room and dining room look like pictures out of magazines when they are clean:

This is Nik's room. He actually does a pretty good job at keeping his room clean, but since he's still learning to make his bed, he rarely puts forth the effort.

Rooms have such a comforting feel when they are clean. And just simply making the bed can make such an immense difference.

The last picture of my cleaning process that I'm going to show is our clean room. I wouldn't dare show you the dirty version (lol...as I'm typing I'm realizing that can have more meanings than one, since we are talking about our bedroom. hehe) because it's honestly just about as bad as the living room. As we come home shoes get kicked off, clothes fall to the floor, kids toys wander into the bedroom, diapers and wipes also all over the place (for easy grabbin' when I need to change a diaper). Ah, now I can actually sleep peacefully, knowing that I'm not going to step on an old pop tart or trip over a baby doll on my way to the bathroom.

I made homemade lasagna for dinner last night. I'm not sure why it will never compare to the gorgeously stacked and perfectly layered lasagna in the restaurants. Either way, between my homemade lasagna and stuffed shells, they are Nik's favorite!

So after dinner I begged and pleaded for Roger to take care of the kids while I worked on a paper for school that was due last night. Surprisingly, (sarcasm) it didn't get done. I was sooo upset that I really wanted to throw something glass against the wall and watch it shatter on behalf of my frustration. But instead, I remembered my Personal Challenge, I went outside and snaped a gorgeous picture of the dark clouds forming in my backyard.

When I walked back in the house my anger/frustration level had gone from a 10 down to a 3. It was much more manageable. Despite the kids were still running and SCREAMING throughout the house, Lttl1 was crying, and Roger had the TV blaring watching Pawn Stars. I basically told myself, "Do the best you can, that's all you can do, and if worst comes to worse finish it tomorrow for 10% off your grade." A little disappointed that that ended up being my destiny. At least my house is clean and hopefully I can study peacefully with a movie on for Bri, writing paragraphs as Lttl1 sleeps.
I know I have a busy day ahead of me, with a paper to write, packing for a short vacation, shopping for winter clothes, swim lessons, and Nik's open house. I'll let ya'll know how I survived; check back soon! :)