I have an excuse.

So, lately I have been extremely tired, unmotivated to keep up with the housework, and just blah. Then I was looking through my pictures in Picasa and realized why.

#1

 I have been in Project Mode. I've been trying to sew and make jewelry and cards and blog and so stuff like feeding my family and cleaning the house have been neglected for weeks and I now have to shovel out of it with an industrial grade backhoe.

And, perhaps this should have been #1...

#2

 

Mr. Opportunity here knows that if I'm preoccupied, he can get away with all sorts of mischief!

I feel like I've done a version of this post at least 50 other times.

This is what happens when I tried to put clean sheets on the bed. I do TRY to get housework done...

 

 Then out come the books...

 He left for a minute and I managed to get the bed made, but he couldn't allow the pillows to stay on. It is against his principles.

In a desperate attempt to bribe him to go potty, I got Luke all sorts of little presents as rewards. Don't you think you'd agree to use the potty if you got a present afterward? (It worked with Madelyn, who is the Queen of Stubbornness.) It still didn't sway Luke.

He has gone few times this week of his own accord, which got me very excited, and got him some gummy worms (I'm holding onto the presents for if he ever poops in the potty. That is a big IF.) But if you tell him to go, no matter how you sugar coat it, he won't. And he refuses to wear undies still. It's a Pull-Up or nothing. And he enjoys wearing nothing!

  

He thinks my hair dryer is a gun (along with everything else)

 

Then he chews on the prongs and bends them in towards each other so they won't fit in the socket.

 He came up to me the other day with pieces of cotton stuck in his ears. 

Turns out, he got it from unzipping a couch cushion and ripping out the padding.

...After he had had his way with the couch. We need new furniture. You don't know how brutalized these sofas have been.

This is what happens when he finds my phone unlocked

This is what happens when he gets bored of a snack

(being sneaky, hiding evidence behind his rocker)


This is what happens when he gets a hold of the styrofoam that goes around my sewing machines.

He breaks it up into tiny pieces, the stinker. And he steals my DSLR camera every chance he gets and takes upwards of 40 pictures a time of stuff like this:

  

 This is his favorite shirt, which is one of only three shirts he'll agree to wear when he has to get dressed. It reminds me of Sheldon Cooper every time.

 

I am also attempting to de-clutter the kids' rooms. I actually did finish Luke's room yesterday, so now I just have this to look forward to:

 We're switching toys and clothes and putting things in storage and I just haven't felt the desire to go in to tackle it. I think even Mark is getting exasperated with the state of things, which is saying something. I promise that their rooms are usually clean...

 

 (Random side note)

Madelyn's backup pair of glasses arrived, and they are adorable. They only cost $32, which is 5x less than the ones we bought at the optometrist. Zennioptical.com, people. Wish I'd gone there in the first place. (Although these squeeze her head a little after she's had them on a long time, which is a disadvantage of not being able to try them on first.)

 

 (Other random side note)

I'd almost forgotten that we planted over 100 flower bulbs last fall. I saw these poking out of the back flower bed from my bedroom window and gasped, and let out an internal "SQUEEE! It's springtime!!" I mean, it's going to snow again in a few days, but whatever. Our deep frost didn't manage to kill my bulbs and that makes me happy.

Well, I've got to resume my clutter shoveling now and get dressed and do responsible grown-up stuff. I will hopefully show you my new jewelry listings soon.