Sorting it All Out

When you have young children, you are suddenly faced with a lot of responsibilities.  You have to learn how to juggle.  When you have four children, you have to learn your math, too.  You have to divide your attention between the children and your husband.  You have to learn to somehow multiply your time in order to get everything done.  You have to add more cleaning and straightening to your schedule.  You have to subtract those things that are not important.  And you may have to learn some simple algebraic equations by moving things around in order to solve for N.

As I've mentioned before, I am really trying to get my house in order, but my children are experts at creating those mathematical problems for me!  I find bottles of shampoo in the kitchen and stuffed animals in the bathroom.  I find crayons in the garage and tricycles headed up the stairs.  Hmm...which one of these things are where they belong?  I'll give you a hint.  The answer is none.

A couple of days ago, Benjamin came down the stairs after the older ones had gone to school and he was determined to bring his toys with him.  On his way, I heard a thumpity-bumpity-bonk-bunk sound coming from the stairs and my heart raced as I momentarily worried that he had fallen.  Thank goodness that wasn't the case.  He had tossed down one of the red and black cloth zip-close boxes I purchased from Ikea while getting the boys' room nicely organized.  The box was filled with stuffed animals.  Since he felt that wasn't enough, he also brought sown some wooden sort puzzles.  I suppose I should be grateful, and I am, that he wanted to play near me, because he just wanted to be where I was.

Later in the day, I was putting clothes away in my room while he played quietly in there.  Before I knew it, my floor was one huge Hot Wheels track loaded with enough cars to make the traffic jams in Los Angeles look like scenic routes that were all but deserted.  I tripped my way through the course he had created as I finished my task and was grateful he was playing where I could see because with my kids, if one is out of view, there's a big chance I won't like the scenery when I get there. 

Now there is nothing wrong with him having these stuffed toys and cars and playing with them.  The trouble comes when he doesn't put them back where they belong.  If he gets away with a single day of this, let alone a week, then the rooms are already full of toys.  Multiply that by four children and you may get the idea that a couple things here and a couple things there out of place make for a BIG mess.  I'd probably die of embarrassment if many people saw my house these last couple of weeks when I was sick.  I have a friend, Michael, who insists that all I need to do is to duct tape my children to the wall while I organize the house so they're not getting into things faster than I can clean up after them.  Then, I can free them to play and  can do the things I enjoy.

As tempting as that thought is, I think I won't give the children any ideas on how to torture their siblings, so I will just let them play and learn by my example how to put things in their proper place.  It will take more time than just doing it myself in the present, but it will be a valuable lesson to them for the future.  I've learned in my quest for having a clean house that clearing out clutter means more than just tossing out the garbage.  It also means taking what you have and putting it in the right place.  If I have a bottle of shampoo on the kitchen counter, it's not going to do any good sitting there.  It needs to be taken to the bathroom so that it can be used for its intended purpose.

By the way, I didn't do so hot my first semester of algebra.  In fact, I failed the first quarter with a 69.5 with the grading scale of 70 being the lowest passing grade and, yes, my teacher rounded UP to that.  Fortunately, sometime in the beginning of the second semester, it clicked and I ended up passing the year with an 80.  In college I surprised even myself by making an A+ in the class.  Somewhere along the line, I got it.

All I have to do is figure out how to keep the focus where it needs to be.  I may need to throw out the garbage and then again, I just may discover that I have a talent for something but it just needs to have the right outlet.  I just need to sort everything out and put it in the right room.  That way, when I need strength in an area, I'll know right where to find it.