Extra Crab for me Please

Happy 49th Jodie! The kids must have begged our attention four maybe five times between 7 & 9am. Both Mindy and I resisted their advance and asked them to go play quietly. I figured we’d sleep late after feeling under slept all week long after our return from vacation. I woke feeling not so jovial. OK - more like crabby. Meanwhile, the kids in an attempt to address their own need for food managed to make a messy house messier. And while it’s not fair to blame them, I wasn’t too thrilled. Too, the girls that sat last night spilled a can of soda on the family room carpet. The stain was more than evident in the bright morning light. I exercised and walked Ykraps just as the morning’s coffee finished brewing. A look around the house made me even crabbier. It seemed no matter where my attention turned, there was something amiss. But what got at me most was the unnecessary clutter that I could see in every room. I strive to keep uncluttered spaces, which in turn lend themselves to peace of mind. What our home needs is a top to bottom re-org & cleaning. I returned from walking Ykraps and made myself some coffee. I was still in a crabby mood. I just needed to be alone. After a couple cups of coffee I l readied for my run. Mindy asked that I help ready the kids for church pictures upon my return. I agreed. I ran the Trabue Rd route having not done so for what seemed like a very long time. I hoped the run would ease my pissy mood but for whatever reason, it didn’t. Upon my return I loaded the boxes of clothes destined for the “free store” into Mindy’s van. In doing so, I couldn’t help but notice just how filthy her van was. Holy cow! There was food & stuff strewn everywhere – something I just can’t understand and never ever will. It looked to me that the kids rule that roost. I made brief mention of the mess. Mindy understandably didn’t care so much for the 'constructive criticism', but I couldn’t resist. She was on a tight schedule and needed to head out. After Mindy left I decided to get cracking on the downstairs in lieu of beginning my basement shelf project. My objective was to have the first floor in ship shape by the time Mindy returned which I budgeted for two plus hours. Sometimes when I am in that kind of mood it’s hard for me to start. Everything needed attention. First, I hand washed all of the dishes on the counter. There weren’t that many. Next, I vacuumed the family room and then the ceramic tile. Man was it filthy! Next, I vacuumed the living room dining room combo. All along, my objective was not only to clean but to remove some of the unnecessary clutter that has built up over time. Life has a way of doing that if you’re not determined about it. After removing some clutter my stress began to subside. After starting a load of wash I got busy scrubbing the entire tile flooring. I scrubbed the floor with Pine-Sol, an old dish towel, and a scrubby pad. I got the tile looking sweet! I did the kitchen, hallway, half bath and laundry room. Just as I was finishing up, Mindy and the kids returned. To my dismay, the kids weren’t that concerned with my clean floor. Not five minutes passed before Bella launched her first attack on my squeaky clean floor. I complained about crumbs, shoes, and everything else. They weren’t home long before Mindy turned around and left for the grocery store. She took Bella along, too. Jacob stayed home with me. Our plan was to head out & get hair cuts. We went to Great Clips in Grandview. They were having a $4.99 special. Can’t beat that! I was worried there’d be a long line at Great Clips. Nope. We got right in. And if that‘s not enough, we got parking right outside the door at a meter. Jacob went with one stylist and I with another. I asked for similar cuts. Ten minutes later we were both done. Jacob got whacked pretty good. Looks like they got a bit carried away with his bangs, but they’ll grow back. Mine looked descent. We were back home in less than thirty minutes after first leaving the house. Jacob asked if I’d play some basketball. I obliged. We went to the basement and played for about 40 minutes, or until Mindy returned with groceries. We had fun. When Mindy returned with the groceries both of us went up to help carry in the haul. It wasn’t long after we finished carrying everything in that I realized the book I took along to Great Clips was no where to be found. A quick call to Great Clips revealed that I left it there. Crap! Back to Great Clips. After returning with my book I snuggled up in the reading chair. I dosed and read until the Buckeye basketball game came on at 4pm. This was the final game of the season for the #1 OSU Buckeyes, who just happened to be playing Michigan. As stressed as I was today, I shouldn’t have watched this game. The Buckeyes genuinely played like shit. It was very stressful watching the inept play. I was hard to believe that they're the #1 team in the country. We were down by 6 with just a couple minutes left. I had enough, and soon left to walk Ykraps. It felt good getting out of the house in the fresh cool air. We returned about 8-10 minutes later. I was certain the game was over and the Buckeyes had lost. But to my surprise, they hadn’t. Somehow they pulled out the game in the final minute and won by 4 points. Strange! Mindy and the kids opted for pizza from Minelli’s for dinner. I wasn’t hungry. I spent my entire evening reading, something I don’t do enough of. Mindy readied the kids for bed early then took to our bedroom to watch a movie. I had the downstairs largely to myself, which given my crabby mood was probably a very good thing. I continued to read throughout the entire evening. I stopped once to tuck the kids into bed. Mindy went to bed very early even for her. I think she was in bed by 9pm. I kept reading. Finally, about 10pm I made myself a Jack and Coke and tuned into South Park. It was awfully entertaining. To my delight, there were like four episodes in row. After my Jack & Coke I made a Captain Morgan’s and Fresca. That did me in. I kept falling asleep as I watched a couple more episodes of South Park. At 11:30pm I caved and headed up to bed. I was more than ready for some bed sleep.