The Importance of Staying Alert

Today was one of those days. Jeremy had to work this afternoon, and I had some work I needed to do on my laptop. Unfortunately, I forgot the Golden Rule of Children: The amount of destruction created by two boys is inversely proportional to the number of eyes watching them. The fewer the eyes, the greater the destruction. This formula is increased exponentially when said boys are mischievous and too smart for their own good. So, I was moving along writing my mid-year update for the goals I need to write each year for school, and I was getting thirsty. I decided to get something to drink, and as I walked into the family room, I discovered that Matthew and Nathan had not been quietly watching TV as I thought. They had moved the couch into the center of the room and turned it so that it faced the TV. In the process, they had taken the rug and rolled into a ball in front of the TV. You can tell that I don't clean under the couch too often, because it was a little gross under there. I decided to get out my nifty Swiffer mop and mop the floor under the couch area. After I finished, it was time to feed Andrew, so I left the mop in the corner of the family room and went to feed him.

That was the point at which Matthew decided that I needed some help. While I was in the bedroom feeding Andrew, Matthew proceeded to empty the entire bottle of cleaning solution from the mop onto the floor. Nathan helped him until he figured out that if he tattled, he probably wouldn't get in as much trouble. So he comes running in the bedroom saying, "Matthew's playing with the mop!" I put Andrew down (who promptly started screaming since he wasn't done with his meal), and went into the family room. It looked like I was now standing in an overflowed stream. The floor was very wet. Matthew got sent to his room, and I told him he couldn't come out until the floor was dry. He was in his room for about 45 minutes since that was how long it took to dry the floor. Then, when I went to move everything back to its correct place, I discovered that it was really gross under the rug. So I decided to mop the rest of the floor. I didn't get much else done this afternoon, but my family room floor has never been cleaner! Matthew is also a couple of dollars poorer since I told him I was taking some money out of his bank to help pay for the bottle of cleaner he wasted. That made him more upset than getting sent to his room.