my boys actually think they do chores

OK

I am not even sure where to start this post except that I went upstairs to do some more laundry (I spilled Alpha Bits on my white cut-offs.   White cut-offs because I could not find the jean ones in my size in the store Sarah recommended I check out while we were in Tennessee ... and I wanted to look just like her back at home, and Alpha Bits because I spent $5.99 on a light blue delphinium instead of on more food, and the flower got so rained on yesterday that it actually snapped in half and now all I have is a stem, some leaves and some potentially stained cut-offs)

anyway ...

I went upstairs to start the next load so I could hopefully salvage my totally current cut-offs when I stopped to actually look around me.  I was not surrounded by laundry ... I was surrounded by STUFF!  I do not even know who owns all this but it was vomitted all over the floor and all over the sinks and it MUST be Neal's fault because he tucked the boys in last night and HAD to have seen their room, too, but he said nothing!!

If I had the camera at home I would load you with pictures ... but it belongs to Neal's boss, and he kind of uses it during the day for work. (whatever).  Evan clearly is not wearing clean clothes today because he has a big target taped to the dresser drawers, and there are elastics and spongy disk things all over the floor and down the hall and in my bedroom.  His laundry bin (which was going to be THE thing that finally made laundry happen) is full of clothes, but they are usually just the things he didn't feel like putting anywhere else ... except it is on its side on the floor and I don't know what is clean or dirty because they supposedly do their own laundry (I do try to be firm).  His bed looks like it was hit with a low-flying tornado, but I think he slept ok last night.

While I was yaking to Neal on the phone, Evan walked by my room and announced that he has finally found his Abeka math book ... the last time he worked on math was last Tuesday he thinks.  Don't ask me ... I just live here.

Jonam had large, labelled Ziplock bags all over the bathroom floor from his Scouting canoe trip.  He filled the bags with clothes and necessities in case the canoe he was in tipped.  It didn't.  BUT his camping stuff is all over the place and someone is totally going to wipe out on the Ziplocks!  Someone has dragged a comforter into the doorway of their bedroom (they share a room which just makes everything look way more messy ... I think).  Jonam keeps covering himself with Calomine lotion for all the bites he got on the trip, and then whenever we ask him to do something, he yells "argghhhh ... mosquito bites!!!" which is code for something that Neal and I have yet to decipher.

Miscellaneous cups and bowls and spoons even though MY children NEVER eat anywhere but at the kitchen table.

All of Jonam's paints in the corner of his ... wait a second ... those are MY paints that I use to make my altered books ... and he is using them because he is going to be a special effects guy, making good, Christian movies when he grows up, and then he can always have yogurt in his fridge and he can finally be allowed to make that chocolate "toilet" cake that I never want to bake ( cake shaped like a toilet with stuff in the "bowl" part, iced white  ) Oh, yes, and the cheese will never run out and will always be for eating right now.

More clothing behind the door to their room ... cats laying atop the laundry I HAVE managed to get done so far ... I totally have to post pictures later, when Neal gets home because I am sure none of it will be changed from now until then (even though it will be 4 1/2 hours till we see his handsome face).

This all to say that I had a "conversation" with Jonam in the bathroom that questioned how it is that these disasters come to be in our home with such frequency when my well-trained son calmly agreed with me and said "I know, Mom ... we have such a high maintenance house"