When All Else Fails...There's Always Vacuuming!

We had a long day today.  We went to three different stores looking for soccer shorts, of all things.  What kind of sporting goods store doesn't carry kids' clothes???  Well, three stores later, a lot of fort-making out of clothing racks, and plenty of "evil eye" from store employees, we finally found something that will work.  Next stop, grocery store.  Those of you with more than one child know about the "race car" shopping cart.  Oh, race car cart, how I loathe you...  Have you ever tried to pass another one down a narrow aisle?  It takes some serious maneuvering and balancing skills, and often catching skills as shelf items inevitably come crashing down to some degree.  Seems like the moms who use them know what they are doing though and we all have the same look on our faces - a calculating look that seems to be judging just how much room we have to squeeze two giant carts with a car seat inside and two kids hanging out the side doors, all without pausing, slowing, or looking like we might not have things quite under control.  We manage to get past each other and change the look on our faces to one of smugness - like we mastered some amazing challenge never attempted before.  Good job, moms of many kids driving monstrous carts!  You deserve a glass of wine tonight! :)

After a long morning of running errands, I thought for sure the boys would want to snuggle up in bed for a bit (yes, my boys actually do WANT to nap some days, believe it or not) but they insisted they were not tired.  They really are too old for naps now so I let them stay up.  The problem with cutting out the nap is that I have to fill that once quiet oasis of time in my day with something else - something that involves two crazy, slightly tired boys rather than reading or emailing or napping myself.  I will be honest, I needed a nap, so I was quickly running out of ideas and patience.  This was when the idea hit me - get out the vacuum!  No, not a toy vacuum, the real thing!  (Ours is mysteriously named Fo-Fannah, by the way.)  After I did what actually needed to be done, the boys just took over!  The noise mesmerized fussy Jack, and had the older boys so busy, they forgot to harass me!  They had couch cushions off and were busy vacuuming both sides of them and under them.  They were down on their bellies with the hose getting the dust under the couches.  I showed them how they could suck up dust just about anywhere

with it and they took turns pushing the vacuum around while the other one did the actual vacuuming.

They even went so far as to vacuum the windows (not sure if that did any good, but I cheered them on anyways.) 

I love you, Fo-Fannah.  You saved my sanity today.