If I had one wish....

Most people would make a wish for something out there.... A dream vacation, a lot of money, maybe even more wishes. Right? Some people might even wish for something like how they want to find true love, maybe a loved one getting well, something less selfish than the other wishes.

However, me? I wish for something maybe a little out there or hey maybe to other parents it isn't all the crazy. I wish for a clean house. Not just for one day but everyday. I guess really to back up, I just wish my children were as into the idea of having a clean house as I was. Or maybe I would wish for something like me being a better "housewife"... I am so not very domestic, I have other skills instead. :)

However, I really want my house to be clean. I really want to not be embarrassed by it any more. I really want to teach my children the importance of cleaning, being neat and how to clean. I think that is an important skill, don't you? Okay don't answer that.

I wish I could peek into other people's houses so I could just see if I am the only one or not. Some days I can't believe we live here like this. I expect Oprah's production team to show up at my house, saying my name/house was sent in as the dirtiest house in America and wow they are surprising me with a team of cleaning people.... but the catch is my house will be seen by millions! Hmm, yeah I don't even want Goofball to see my house or my parents. I cringe when the doorbell rings because I don't want people to see in!

And it isn't like I don't know HOW to clean, I do. But I will admit, I am a surface cleaner. I know I have talked about this before (but I am too lazy to look back through all the blog entries for just where).... If you can see it in my house, most of the time that is all that is clean. Just don't look behind anything, under, inside my closets are off limits. Okay?

The other thing is that we just have too much stuff for the size of my house. I have too many living things in the house (4 people, 3 pets). The house is around 1000 sq ft. I do have a huge yard which totally makes up for it.... Okay, almost makes up for it. The remodel we did last summer has made a huge difference even though it didn't add a lot more square feet. It used to be just less than 1000, now we are officially over it.

At any rate I just need less stuff in my house or people who are willing to help and even clean up after themselves or the Clean Sweep Team or a team of maids or a magic gene. I am not sure which would be better.

But that is what I wish for.... What about you?

His favorite things

My youngest is 6 years old. There is a big gap between him and the older two by nature not by design. He was treated much different than the older two because one I was an older parent and two I had more experience and three, he had these two older siblings to help spoil and entertain him.

He has also had to be more competitive to get attention and what his sees as his.

That being said, he inherited a lot of his brother's old toys. As H would outgrow them, L would get them.

But more than that, L has a different view on toys than H did. EVERYTHING, no joke, is L's fave. Even down to things he gets out of a Happy Meal or gum ball machine. He honestly plays with all his toys.

I have tried numerous times to go through his toys to clean out ones he doesn't play with but as I sort through, I find very few things that he just doesn't play with and usual it is because those few things are broken or something.

On one hand, I love this about him because he has such a great imagination that he can figure out how to make Fisher Price Little people, dinosaurs and Star Wars figures all interact in a way that makes sense. He amazes me!

However, after each birthday and each Christmas, I am finding it harder and harder to buy him things because we have just plain run out of room for his things. This year I tried telling him that Santa needed him to clean out his things to make room for new things. He agreed but we still had a really hard time and in the end, I didn't take out a thing that wasn't broken. Anything broken is out of here.

Does your child have one favorite things or is he/she like mine and loves everything?