What have you been doing all day??

Is one of those questions that seems to ring throughout time. And makes a housewives head want to explode. So here it is... Exactly what I've been doing all day.

Well the morning started bright and early when Zaccy decided to get up around 6am... Which I figure its not his fault I spent half the night up checking Harry's temp, so I got up smiled and asked him if he had a good sleep. Harry got a sleep in until nearly 8am, but I figure he had a high temp all night so he obviously need the rest.

So we give Phil a kiss and send him off to work, then I drag myself into the kitchen to Zaccy's siren song of "Toast? Loll loll!" And freeze in horror at the scene before me... Yes I remember not doing the dishes the night before because I was panicking over Harry who was hot, shaking like a leaf and declaring that the light hurt his eyes... However I was sure I heard at some stage the clang of pots and had been living in eternal hope that the dish fairy had done them... The dish fairy however was obviously on strike, or semi strike as he had at least gathered them all up and plonked them in the sink. So I throw on some toast and had to clean off one bench so I at least had somewhere to butter it. So with Zaccy sitting down with his Toast with loll loll (that's jam for all you not in the know). I set about cleaning the kitchen, with Zaccy attached to my leg. By the time this is done and I've scoffed down a piece of toast myself Harry is up and so the next round of breakfast starts again.

I then turn on the TV to help entertain the kids while I do some cleaning, federal government be damned.... How am I meant to get anything done if I'm not allowed to let my kids watch TV. I mean who makes these guidelines?? So to start with do the mad emu dance around the house picking up toys, clothes etc, so I can mop the sticky jam encrusted floor. I then pull out the vacuum cleaner and am part way through plugging it in when I hear a CRASH and a "SORRY MUM!" So I go running into the lounge to find my lounge is now full of Harry's cordial... I try to mop it up but it's just not happening so I strip the covers off the couch and throw them down the laundry chute to contemplate later. I'm just about to start vacuuming again when I hear "WHOOPS!" You have to be kidding me... Now Zaccy's cordial is decorating the floor rug... I mean come on people... I don't normally give the kids cordial but after Harry's fever, was concerned that he was dehydrated and thought what a better way then get them to drink heaps then with a gobful of sugar... Which was now stickifying my floor... (I'm sure that is the scientific name for it).

Anyway, I add more water and drag said rug out of the house and hang it outside where it can dry and the sun can hopefully bleach the orange out of the creamish rug (well in all honesty it's a dirty cream, but still looked better pre-orange)...

I then go back inside and figure I've picked up one rug why not the rest, so I pile everything into the lounge room around the kids who are watching TV. (that's chairs, bar stools, rugs, kids tables etc.) and set to vacuuming... 2 minutes later I hear the dreaded "PUSH! PUSH!" Yes it is Zaccy who wants to help me vacuum and turn a 20 minute job into an all day debacle... But you know gotta foster that love of cleaning, so I smile and let him help push the vacuum with me. I finally get jack of that and tell him, that Mummy has to do it and he should go play with Harry. So then I'm vacuuming to background screaming... Deciding this isn't such a good idea I drop my vacuum and go in search of the toy one. Low an behold this works. Right up until I pull out the mop. Then I hear "PUSH PUSH!" again. So we are both pushing the mop around, cleaning 2 foot increments at a time (although on the up side seeing as its a steam mop the slower you go, the cleaner the floor). So once all the floors are cleaned. Well besides the boys room and the toy room - which after finding a green coated piece of toast under the rug that sits under the couch, I decided they will wait till the weekend when I can give them a complete spring clean.

So the floors are clean and it is now 11.30, so knowing that the groceries aren't being delivered until after 6pm, and our fridge contains slightly less than Old Mrs. Hubbard's, I head downstairs to put the kids in the car. On passing the laundry I decide to be lazy and put the first load of clothes I put on at some stage that morning in the dryer and start a 2nd load. I then get both boys in the car, strap them in, put on their DVD's and head for subway... So I unstrapped both kids, put on 2 pairs of shoes, drag both kids into the store. WHERE THEY WERE OUT OF SOUTHWEST SAUCE!!! Now people who know of my subway addiction will understand my dilemma, but all you really need to know is that it is a BAD BAD thing... So I can either put the kids back in the car and head for another store or suck it up and just get something else... So I suck it up. We then head home where the boys eat their ham sub, (after I unstack their table and chairs) and I try to eat my salad... Note to self Honey Mustard is NOT a suitable alternative to southwest... But I sneak off to the media room to try and catch some Ellen, while I try to read my Uni prescribed book and eat my tasteless salad. After about 5 mins I didn't even get to see the first guest I've decided I've had enough and get up to check on the boys, who I can hear nattering away at their table in the lounge. And find they have lettuce and tomato sauce spread from here to kingdom kong... And don't ask my why, but a piece of ham stuck to the top of my piano.... Fair enough. That will teach me for letting them eat unsupervised... So I get out the swiffer sweeper and try to do damage control, but alas the floor looks just as filthy as it had before I mopped...

I then give up on that and decide to do defingerprint the windows and mirrors. I start in the bedrooms, and move out through the media room, lounge, spare room and then the dining room, where I look back out and find Zaccy in the lounge room mimicking me cleaning the windows.... With his hand!! His sticky smudgifying hand... I go back through the house and find 4 separate windows that he has "cleaned'... I figure fair enough, goodness knows why I thought the windows need cleaning anyway... So I decide to tackle the laundry... So I set the kids up with one of those books that has the paints on the side and a little thimble full sized cup of water, and head downstairs and take the first load out of the dryer, put the 2nd load in... Yes I know not terribly environmentally friendly, but really have you been reading my day so far?? Do you wanna take this up with me?? I fold the clothes and think I might check on the boys before I start with the ironing. I head up and find that Zaccy has decided his little tiny paint cup makes the perfect drinking cup... He holds it up to me and says "juice" before proceeding to drink it down. He then uses his water bottle to squirt more water into the cup (and onto our 80 year old antique table, onto the seats, and over the floor. And repeats... Much to my horror, I'm mid "Zaccy, don't drink tha...." When I notice that Harry has developed a trick of his own. He get his cup swirls the paint brush in it until it changes colour and then pours the whole thing onto his book... He then uses the water bottle to refill (at least I know where Zaccy got it from) and go again... So now I have a soggy table, chairs and rug. With clumps of screwed up soggified paper all over the shop (didn't I just clean the floor??? I'm sure I had a clean floor at some stage today??!!)... So I decide that my great grandmothers antique table isn't the best place for the boys to be painting (even with water colours and on a splash mat - cause they have splashed way further than just their mat!)

So I figure it's a perfect time, with the help of the boys to turn the study (which has been empty for months) into the kids craft / board game / puzzle room. So I drag the spare coffee table (which has been taking up space in the media room since we moved, and weighs about the same as a small country...) into the study. And start moving all craft / board game / puzzle related things from the other cupboards where they have been stashed around the house and set them all up in the new room. So once that is all done I set the boys up again (this time with crayons) and am just about to head downstairs when I realise it is 2pm (so I have totally missed Zaccy's sleep time... So I drag him away from his brand new play room and pop him into bed (feeling like the wicked witch of the west as he howls "Paint! Please play paint!") and rock him until he goes to sleep.

I then tip toe out, check on Harry who has now sojourned to the computer, check his temp again - all good, and head downstairs to do the ironing. By this stage the 2nd load is done, so dryer the 3rd load and put on the 4th. Fold the 2nd and grab the ironing pile, which now resembles Kosciusko and start ironing... I have 2 items left (2 including the one on the ironing board) when Harry comes running, "Mummy Zaccy is crying..." So I quickly try to finish the shirt I'm doing, and manage to steam burn my poor finger!! I give it up as a bad joke run upstairs (sucking on my poor now fingerprint free finger) and go grab Zaccy, who after about 10 mins on my shoulder falls back to sleep. So I put him back down, check on Harry - who is watching TV now. And head back downstairs, where the 3rd load of washing is now dry. So I fold those and put on the 5th load - which were the couch cushions that I had forgotten about (whoops), and start on my newly grown ironing pile, when I notice that my jeans need hemming - as they are nearly destroyed due to being too long for me. And I figure the sewing table is down here so why not do it now.

I had just set up the table and had 1 leg pinned when Zaccy is up again, so I head up the stairs to set him playing so I can finish, but he just wants to come downstairs with me. So I try to set him on the floor of the laundry, but he will have none of that... So I'm trying to measure and pin the jeans around a squirming crying child. And am onto the last pin when I drop it... NOOOOOO! So I sit him on the chair and am on my hands and knees trying to find this pin... And do you think I could find it?? No.... So I rush Zaccy back upstairs so he doesn't step on it, after a brief discussion about how to find the fallen pin, via the net with my new cousin in law Jess (who is a sewing extraordinaire) I set about with a magnet to try and pick that sucker up... To no avail, so I drag out the vacuum cleaner (which at least drowns out Zaccy's screaming)... So now I have no idea if said pin is still on the floor or not... But I don't want to risk Zaccy's (Harry is back playing puzzles by this stage - and has been up and down with me - pre pin episode - a couple of times to help with the laundry - so never fear he hasn't been forgotten) so I decide the ironing will wait while I calm him down and get him playing with Harry. So up to the new play room, and I get 1 puzzle for Zaccy and get Harry started with a number counting puzzle. But then Zaccy pulls all the puzzles out of the cupboard, and there are puzzle pieces and boards everywhere, but that's allright at least it's distracting him, we play for a while and then I try to sneak back downstairs...

However Zaccy Mummy radar alerts him to my scheme... I figure I have to fold load # 4 so he can just sit on the bench beside the washing while I do it. So there he is which I'm folding, when he suddenly leans down and dips his hand into the sink which is soaking the whites in Napi san and pulls it straight back out to put to his mouth... So I grab him, screaming "NO ZACCY POISON!" and go running up the stairs with him to the kitchen where I douse his mouth and hands with so much water that he accidentally breaths some in and starts chocking... WHOOPS!! I then grab my phone and ring Phil to ask whether he thinks I've poisoned Zaccy. He declares that if he just dipped his hand into Napisan diluted in water and then just licked his fingers there wouldn't be enough poison on that to worry. So I start to calm down, give him a glass of milk just to be safe, but then decide to ring mum, as she knows everything and will tell me if I should be worrying or not... She agrees that he should be fine, however I don't want to leave him upstairs unsupervised in case he does have a reaction, and figure he is safer with a pin that may still be on the floor then the bench with the napisan water or out of my sight upstairs.

So I'm back downstairs and ironing yet again, with Zaccy whining at my feet when I finally hear Phil walk in... Now Phil has obviously been brought up right... Either that or I looked like I might snap! Cause he doesn't ask me that dreaded awful question, but instead asks if I'm okay! Have I told you what a wonderful hubby I have. He takes Zaccy off my hands with a bribe of going out and look at the pool, he collects Harry who is shouting 'Hello' at the top of his lungs from the top of the stairs and they head out... Now I'm downstairs ironing still. And all I can see are visions of all the bad things that could happen to my children once Phil takes them inside the pool fence... My worst case scenario radar... Most mothers would know it... Well most mothers in my family definitely know all about it. So with visions of Phil falling unconscious and me finding the kids drowned and not knowing who to do CPR on first... I suddenly hear a gut wrenching fear filled howl. Now I'm the first to admit that I'm obviously a failure as a mother as I can't tell the difference between the normal cries... You know the I'm hungry, tired, frustrated or stubbed my toe kind... But every mother knows this panic stricken sound of fear in their kids scream... So I hit those stairs running so fast that if it had of been a sporting event they would have been testing for steroids... Go dashing out the front and find Harrison crying... So my already stopped heart, seizes even more... Logically though I should have realised that his crying wasn't the blood curdling one I had heard... But all I could think was that Zaccy must be in the pool. So I glance up, and thankfully there he is... Standing there soaking wet, so yes he had fallen in the pool, but Phil had been right there with him and pulled him straight back out. So I run to grab him a towel... Wrap him up and grill Phil to ascertain how much water he might have taken in, "was he under long?" "how far away from him were you?" "did you run to get to him?" I change Zaccy into dry clothes, calm down Harry who was upset as he was apparently meant to be helping Daddy watch Zaccy and didn't stop him from falling in. (How cute is that... I tried to explain to him, although we always want him to watch out for his brother, the responsibility is Daddy's and mine but I was glad that he was watching as I'm sure it helped Daddy get to Zaccy all that much faster). I then left the boys playing in the backyard with Phil (on the correct side of the pool fence this time) and went down to finish my ironing, and repair Phil's work pants.

So... I then bring up all the clothes and put them away while Phil cooked us dinner (with the very meagre offerings left in the fridge). And contemplate that even though I barely stopped the house still looks like a small cyclone has gone through it... So what exactly did I do all day??