Tagged Again

As if the purse post wasn't humiliating enough, Mahina has tagged me for a new, dreadful blog meme.

Let me first set the stage. Saturday morning was rather slow and lazy for me. I slept until 8:00 am, which felt luxurious and wonderful. I then got up and proceeded to putter, working on a little of this and a little of that. The whole day stretched out before me and I had things I wanted to accomplish, so I didn't worry about the messes my kids were making--or the ones that I was making. I figured that when we were finished making our messes we would clean them up. But not now. So I worked simultaneously on making pinto beans for 75 for the ward dinner, cycling laundry through the washer and dryer, and catching up on my blog reading. Occasionally, I would stop to handle one of the needs of my children, but I wasn't stressed about cleaning up breakfast or picking up legos. There was plenty of time for that.

I started reading Mahina's post about a tag where you take photos of specific places in your house without stopping to clean them up at all, and it occurred to me that I might want to finish reading it later, when my house was clean. I actually got up from the computer and walked away, but a few minutes later I was sitting there again (because I can't control myself) reading her post and reassuring myself that she wouldn't have tagged little old me. After all, I just had to do the purse post.

Alas, when I reached the end of her post, there was my name staring back at me.

I've decided that I don't care if you think less of me after seeing my dirty kitchen sink, my stacks of laundry, or my baby who was still playing in her strawberry-stained pajamas at 10:30 am. Everyone has moments when their house is less than perfect. I have them every day. I try to have my house look good at some point each day, but I wasn't lucky enough to have it be the time when I had to take pictures. That would have meant that I waited to read my favorite blogs until after I had done my work, which requires way more self control than I have on most days.

Okay, but that first statement is a lie. I do care what you think. I want everyone to love me, and that is the pathetic truth. So please don't leave me over this!:) I guess I've gone into full disclosure mode lately and have nothing left to hide from my readers once this is over. I will not respond to some sadistic tag to photograph my cellulite or the fillings in my teeth that scream "sweet tooth", so I guess this is the worst it will get.

So, without any more stalling, here is my life--at least what my life looked like at 10:30 am Saturday.

1. The Fridge.
Lucky for me, I generally do my grocery shopping on Friday, so by Saturday I had already disposed of nasty old leftovers (or crammed them farther to the back where you can't see them.) If you've been reading me for very long, you'll know that I heart my fridge. And I have tried harder than ever before in my life to actually clean it. My favorite things in my fridge/freezer right now? The assortment of sorbet pints that were on sale at Safeway-- I got Mango, Lemon, and Chocolate. And I'm not sharing.

2. The closet.

I have my own closet--our master bedroom does not have a coveted walk-in, but it does have two separate closets. The left side is nothing to brag about it, but there is some semblance of order. I try to keep it closed because Bronwen likes to get into the cube in my shoe rack that holds phonics boosk. The right side has, besides my dresses, my gift wrap box, my ironing pile, and a bunch of home school manuals and resource guides. Oh, and old purses and diaper bags stacked ever so neatly on the top shelf!And some books that I plan to give away on my blog at some point when I finally get around to hosting a contest.







3. The kitchen sink.

The huge bowl is out because I started making bread at 9:30 pm on Friday (It's too hot right now to bake during daylight hours) and by the time my bread was finished rising I was not interested in washing it. Thank goodness I didn't have to show you this


since I was working on the beans for the ward dinner and hadn't cleaned up breakfast yet. That was a close call!

4. The Toilet.

Jared actually forbade me to post this. You see, he is the neat freak in our relationship and balked at the idea of everyone in the free world looking at our toilet. I did choose the cleaner of our two toilets (the one not used by children) and I don't think that it looks bad, but I'm just banking on the fact that he rarely reads my blog. Besides, he knows better than to forbid me to do anything--I don't respond well to such tactics!

5. My favorite shoes.


I must say that I have a very difficult time choosing a favorite of anything good. I could never narrow down a favorite food, or ice cream flavor, child, or book. And shoes definitely fall in the category of "how could I just choose one?" So I pulled out the four pairs that I currently wear multiple times a week. If it had been winter, there would have been a pair of brown cowboy boots and a pair of red high-heeled boots. But they didn't fit in this picture and I haven't worn them for months. I really want to get a pair of the wedge espadrilles that everyone except for me is wearing this season. Except that two of my kids are in desperate need of new shoes and they have a better excuse since their feet actually grow.

6. Favorite Room.


I misunderstood and took a picture of our family's favorite room, which is where we spend the bulk of our time. That train table was my best furniture purchase to date, because it entertains for hours and has lots of storage room for toys. But my favorite room in our house to look at is the nursery, which we redecorated before Ian was born and added beadboarding and floor boards that are taller than 1 inch. Maybe I'll go take a picture of that one right now. On second thought, it has stuffed animals and board books spread all over the floor, so I'm not going to do that. Maybe some other day.

7. What my kids are doing right now:

Bronwen is following me around, begging me to read another book to her. I'm saying, "Just a minute, baby. Let me finish taking these pictures before it gets worse!"

The boys are out on the trampoline, which you can barely find for the weeds. Our backyard has been planned for a landscaping for three years. Thankfully, they haven't refused to play in it. I loved the pictures of Mahina's yard. Wow.

8. The laundry pile.


Thankfully, I spent some quality time folding laundry on Friday night while the bread was raising (Jared was bowling with some other guys, who had been set up by their wives to get out of the house.) I did not, however, deliver the piles of folded laundry to the drawers of my sleeping angels. So here they sit on my dresser (confession: it's Monday morning now and those piles are still there.)

9. Self Portrait.


That's as good as it's gonna get on a Saturday morning. I was not content with any of the pictures I took by myself of myself with my glasses on and no makeup. So now you can just see that I am in bad need of a pedicure. I think that was enough.

10. My dream vacation.


I'm not sure how this fits in with the others, except that after showing your dirty secrets to all of your friends and stalkers, you would surely want to escape to some far off place. There are so many places that I'd like to travel, but if I could plan one trip right now and money and time were not issues, I'd plan a trip to Istanbul, Athens, and all over Italy. (photos courtesy of Istanbul.com, Wikipedia, and Destination 360.)

So, instead of tagging anyone else and furthering the agony, I'll list who I almost tagged. That way, you can feel so relieved to have escaped the madness. Or, if you are just looking for something to blog about, you can take the challenge. And the winners are: Alli, Ordinary Mom, Macy, Morgan, and Mindyluwho.