Horrible, Awful, Stupid Jobs . . .

It has been radio silent for too long on this blog.

The exciting part of our Summer is over and most days I don’t feel like writing another post about how much my kids fight or how I’m a bad mom because I just want them to leave me alone for two minutes.

Luckily, I did come up with a way to keep them busy for just a little bit. It’s called horrible, awful, stupid jobs. Yes, I actually named it that. It is a list I wrote up one night when I was feeling overwhelmed as a mom, wife and chief housekeeper. The list contained all the things I never seem to have time to do and I decided that I’d have my worker bees help me while they are home this Summer to get it done.

I’m sure you can imagine how thrilled they were.

What kind of jobs am I talking about?

Things like wipe down all six kitchen table chairs and the two bar stools, which are white and have the spills, grime and finger smudges of a thousand years on them.

Or take all the white pitchers off the shelf above the sink in the kitchen (there are 20) and wash and dry them so they no longer have the grease from eleven years of cooking on them.

Or sand down the teak table, chairs and bench on the back porch and seal them all with teak oil so they don’t look like back woods hick furniture anymore.

Or scrub down the entire front porch with soap and watcher so I don’t ever have to see or walk through another spider web for as long as I live.

Or wipe down every single baseboard in the entire house with a damp rag so I can’t write my name on them with my finger.

Or Hannie B’s personal favorite, using baking soda, vinegar, Q tips and toothpicks to clean all of the window tracks in the house. (see above and below photos for evidence)

Horrible, awful, stupid jobs are AMAZING!!!!

And to be fair, I am doing jobs too! But mostly the kind of jobs I usually do, like laundry, cooking, basic house cleaning, and my favorite (seriously) organizing.

The rule is first we work, then we can play. The kids have plowed through the list until we are almost done. As a reward for the day they resorted all the Legos by color, I have been rebuilding Lego sets that had long since been destroyed. I’ll do one set a day. It is very relaxing for me, almost like putting a puzzle together and the little boys are beyond excited to have another completed set to play with.

So, that’s what’s happening around here. Big kids have Cross Country every day. Little kids have quiet time in their rooms because they fight too much. We have one last little get away to Ohio to see my sister before Summer comes to an end and then it’s on to another school year.

Let me know if you need any more horrible, awful, stupid job ideas.  I’ve got loads!