Thursday, May 20, 2010

Responsibility Sucks

Literally. Sucks like a vacuum.

Alternate titles for this post:
A: That's what I get for _____.
B. Another case for baldness.

Pictured is my to-do list for this week. They are semi-big projects, the idea being I would plan to do 2 or 3 of these items each day and by the end of the week have the house in perfect shape for Chris and Leah's return. Really, I wanted to take the week off, too, and visit with friends, watch movies all night, and improve my guitar hero skilz in the privacy of my basement.

I'm thinking Disney World or Las Vegas would have been a lot more fun than what I ended up with. Responsibility. Choosing to stay home and make money instead of spend it. Choosing to clean the car, mop the kitchen floor, cut the grass (ugh!), and heaven forbid change the lightbulbs without anyone telling me it was the right thing to do. (For the record, I refuse to change lightbulbs when Chris is home.) So that's what I've done all week. I spent all day Saturday in the yard. I put away laundry and did the dishes (but those ones keep re-appearing on my checklist). I actually prepared my Sunday lesson the day before instead of during Sunday School. It is amazing how much of a difference it makes to take 24 hours to prepare instead of 45 minutes!

But alas, my comedy of errors began on Tuesday.

1. I cleaned out the fridge. I mean, take out all the food and wash the shelves and scrub the walls inside and out. I moved the whole thing and retrieved half of the alphabet from underneath it. Then as I was washing a shelf it spontaneously shattered into a million pieces. In the sink and the drain. That took an extra 20 minutes to clean up. That's what I get for cleaning out the fridge (see alternate blog title A). Cleaning the fridge wasn't even on my to do list. (PS--do you ever write stuff on your to-do list that you have already done just so that you can cross it out?)

2. While vacuuming a bedroom, I accidentally sucked up a sock. That took 30 minutes and some disassembling of the vacuum to undo. That's what I get for vacuuming.

3. Speaking of vacuuming, I moved all the furniture out of the living room and the family room to do the job right and realized that we already have traffic patterns after only living here a year. So I decided while all the couches are in the kitchen, I might as well go rent a carpet shampooer.

4. When I took out the garbage, some of the broken glass spilled out onto the stairs (see bullet number 1). I guess was I going to vacuum the stairs anyways.

5. Pour the dirty water from the rental carpet cleaner into the sink. Sink is clogged. Disposal is frozen. It's because it has glass in there. (Refer to bullet # 1) Tomorrow I have to take apart the disposal and get the glass out. That wasn't on my to-do list either.

6. Pour the dirty water from the rental carpet cleaner into the bathtub. Now I have to clean the bathtub.

7. Rental carpet cleaner stops working because the spinning brushes are caked in hair. My hair. (See alternate title B)

8. Laugh out loud and write a blog post about it. That's not on my to-do list, but I'm willing to make sacrifices.

I'm tired.

6 comments:

Joshua said...

*whew*

Thom and Jamie Stansfield said...

oh man holy cow! What crazy times! Other than the hair clogging how did and how much was the carpet cleaner? I have been needing to rent one for a while. Oh and YES I totally write things on my list that i have already done just so i can cross something off. It just feels good to see some lines crossed out! Good luck with it all!

Mom said...

Absolutely write it all down! Clean fridge, buy new shelf, install new shelf, take label off of new shelf. It all takes time, and every job takes more time than you think it will.

Congratulations on getting so much onto and off of the list! We're all proud of you! Maybe even inspired by your discipline.

Lisa M said...

You're so cute!

Petersen Palace said...

hahaahaha none of this is funny but here I am laughing because I am feeling you pain at this exact moment! And yes...to your question in #1.

angela michelle said...

oh no! I hate things like that! I've had a couple times when Mark and all the kids leave and I think I'm going to get things whipped into ship-shape, and then I'm always amazed at how much time it takes.