Monday, September 21, 2015

Blogging + Kids = Null

My gosh it is quiet around here this morning.  School has started late this year and with an amazing number of days off and 1/2 days.  So as of today - I have had only three days in September without a kid home.  And Tuesday is a half day for one and Wednesday is another day off school for the other!  Can't a working parent get a break!?

Given that summer camps all stop about August 15th - that has been a pretty long run without a break to actually work.  I got so desperate to catch up some that I had a little army working putting stickers on bags and things like that - but they are highly distractible and if a better offer comes up - they are off that task.  The bar for a better offer is pretty low of course!  And usually it is something that causes chaos around my working conditions.   And while my office is way upstairs and has a door... you never do that with stinky boys in the house.  During this time, the robot challenge came out and they have been prototyping and more stinky boys arrive (better offer than labeling kits).  I just can't leave them in the basement doing this alone and out of hearing distance... so I trudge to the first floor and listen as they make a heavy cube and ball shooter to launch these projectiles into a 4 foot high box (I could just kill the game designers every year).  I have to monitor what they are saying as they are quite creative to try to solve the problems.  "No, you can't make a slingshot in my basement!" "Hey - I heard that ball hit the ceiling!"  "That better not have made a dent in the wall!"

So you can imagine how excited I was when the first day came last week that I would be alone to work, but the painters called and said they would arrive in an hour unexpectedly.  I had been waiting for three months and they were finally able to start.  Couldn't say no.  So no less than seven rooms and the two staircases were draped in plastic and tarps, including my workroom and packing room.  Fixing the snow dam leaking damage from last winter. (crazy thing - they said I was the first to get painted from snow damage - they had been backed up with work from the explosion of people who wanted work done after the recession started to lessen, the snow damage hasn't been paid out yet by insurance - so no one will get contractors for the next year as they are already all quoted out for a year).

I don't know what to do first! Put my workroom back together again after all the contracting? Pack boxes? Fill orders? Finish instructions? Get things up on the shop website?  I am running around like a chicken with her head cut off with the shear possibilities of GETTING SOMETHING DONE!   Exciting stuff is piling up here that people have been wanting - I have casket feet, new type of caskets, new threads (and some big surprise threads), the frosting club registration pages to go up...  Yikes!  The boxes around here have been piled high for weeks - yet I just couldn't get some things out of them for the shear stinky boy bodies that were everywhere.  (In my house if you have one stinky boy - you have three - it multiplies by attracting more stinky boys).  Then my sister-in-law's dog gets excited by the stench (she is living with us until her contractors are done with her water damage!  Nine months and counting now) and jumps around them - which sets off the parrot (yes - another freeloader pet living here due to water damage).  At that point it is pretty hard to get anything done with the dog barking, kids running around with snacks and balls and robot parts, and the parrot adding its opinion.

So today the quiet is almost deafening - it is the most amazing sound I have heard in a long time!

It kinda reminds me of that classic commercial!


4 comments:

  1. I empathize with you about the stinky boy problem! I remember when there was a VERY strict rule that all sneakers would be left in the garage. Don't worry, they grow out of it about the time they go off to college.

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  2. I know you know this already--but you'll miss it when they're gone. Of course, I enjoy my adult children as adults now--they've turned into quite entertaining people--but sometimes it's just too quiet.

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  3. Actually, in my experience, they don't grow out of it, at least some don't. I've always loved that commercial.

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  4. I KNOW! You finally get a moment to WORK...as in, actually DO the same task for more than 15 minutes without having to STOP because of some catastrophe....and then you realize there are SO MANY things to do ....what do you do first besides just standing there being overwhelmed? We are members of same club! My kids are in the BEST Robot program, southern Colorado is a new hub for this year~ we had our kickoff week before last and theyre REALLY having fun!

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