There went another week

Those of you that are keeping track, we are now less than 5 weeks from Christmas. I suppose I better get ordering/shopping or whatever it is I am going to do. I think it is hard for me to get motivated before Thanksgiving. Maybe this year is an exception because with Trevor's birthday I kind of have to plan out what to get for his birthday and what to save for Christmas.


Anyway, the weekend was crazy busy with hockey, basketball, the kids got to see Curious George the live action show, and then we had a birthday party as well. Because both kids were busy at the show on Saturday I actually got a lot of organizing and cleaning and homework done. I'll have to remember that. Usually when the kids are gone, we have an event to go to, so nothing still gets done around the house. But this weekend was the exception. I actually feel pretty good about the condition of the house right now. Granted, I'm not even touching the family room or the kitchen until Wednesday because the kids would destroy it again before Thursday anyway.

And that brings me to a new event. I was actually able to get Trevor to vacuum for me. I explained that tonight we were going to clean and that everyone had to pitch in. I was pretty sure that Gwen would do the opposite of cleaning up, but I had to give her a job, to keep it fair. Trevor's job was to dust and vacuum both sets of stairs. We have a loud but small hand held vacuum for doing stairs that I have used for many years. While I'm sure the dyson we have works better, I knew he couldn't handle the big thing. Luckily the hand held has a lower and higher setting, so at least he could tolerate the lower setting. I knew I was going to have to show him exactly what he had to do with the vacuum but he did it to perfection. He didn't whip through it like some people do, he took his time and got through it all, and they look great. I was able to clean up the laundry room in the mean time.

I think I can safely say, he can start doing some real chores now. He has liked to clean his room, probably because it doesn't really ever get all that messy. Actually, he has never really been a messy kid, perhaps because he doesn't really own that much stuff, or I get rid of it really quick. But what ever the reason, I'll take his thoroughness in cleaning and enjoying to the point of not complaining. And NO, he is not for hire because I don't want to ruin this for us. Even offering him money does no good because he thinks he has so much money he needs to give it away. He won a small chuck-a-puck game this weekend and was trying to give it to me because he knew I had to buy birthday presents for him. Did I mention he is impossible to buy gifts for because he doesn't want anything? I'm all out of ideas for this kid. We'll see how we make it through this week.