We are at McDonalds, so it must be Friday....

Real men wear tutu's. Two of them.


So, today is Friday.



Fridays are one of the very few "scheduled" days at my house. In my dream world I would do laundry on a specific day, and grocery shop on other specific days, but I tend to be more of a fly by the seat of my pants kind of mom. Fridays are the exception. That is because the cleaning ladies come on Friday. My kids call them the "ladies". I call them the "magical fairies that come to make the whole world a better place and keep my toilets clean".



I like my title better.



The ladies show up at 8:30 sharp. I am their first stop. Usually I try and have the dishes done and all the rooms picked up. We usually get this done. This leaves them to do the deep cleaning. They have a rotating system, one week they deep clean the kitchen (fridge, oven, baseboards, etc), the next week it is bathrooms, the next it is bedrooms and furniture (seriously, does anyone ever vacuum their furniture? Or under it? My ladies do!!!), etc. It is worth every single penny. What I love the best about it is that it starts the clock over each week. I am pretty good about keeping it up in between visits, but there are times when it all goes to pot and I still get to start the weekend with a tidy house.



I use an agency for the service, but get the same ladies each time. They don't speak any English (they do say "Hi Jacob") and I speak no Spanish, but they are the highlight of my week. They always look at all my kids and my growing belly and I think they feel kind of sorry for me. How do I know? Well, the times that I don't get everything picked up they actually put the toys in the proper bins instead of just putting it on the first available surface (which they should TOTALLY do, as I am in charge of picking up, not them). They are great.



The only problem with having the ladies come over so early is that my kids like to "help". The kind of help that isn't much help at all. We try to leave, but finding places to go at 8:00 am isn't as easy as you would think. The answer was, of course, McDonalds. Where else can you eat a delicious sausage sandwich, drink Diet Coke and let your kids exhaust themselves? There is one not too far from me that has a great playground. Lots of tubes and slides for the big kids and a toddler area for Nori. Lots of tables where I can keep an eye on the kids and write out my to do lists and meal plans (or read US Weekly, whatever). Lauren doesn't start school until 10:30 (I know, gag). So we get to have a good long play date, a "healthy" breakfast and leave our ladies in peace.



So go ahead and add this to my list of mother of the year. Yes, my children eat at McDonalds once a week. Even the baby. I could make excuses but I won't. I know that my children eat a balance of healthy and junk. That is the life I choose. Bravo to all you parents that only feed their children organic, healthy things. I love that, in theory. In reality, I buy Trader Joe's cheesy poufs (and they disappear SO fast in my house), chocolate, McDonalds and more than twice this week dinner has consisted of Shrek Chicken Noodle Soup and peaches. Ok, more than three times. I don't spend much time on mom guilt. I am doing the best I can. It seems to be good enough. There is always room for improvement (like yesterday when I was "yelling mom"). But, I choose to give myself a break.



I was worried that I would miss my ladies with this move. I asked them if they worked in the town we are moving to (just about 15 miles north). They told me that they would come work for me on the weekend, not through the agency, because they like us. It turns out that more than half of the money I am paying doesn't go to them. I can pay the same amount of money for a bigger place, still have a weekend slot and THEY make more money. Everyone wins. Rosa has three kids in Mexico and Ana has two kids here (amazing how much I can learn when neither of us speaks the same language...). I think that is a fair deal...I might be trying to justify poaching them a TINY bit, but they are doing it on their time off, so it isn't that big of a deal.



Happy Monday!! I know that most of you guys are still buried in snow. We are holding steady at 70 degrees. It is a good day.



Goals today: Keep Jacob out of the makeup. Have ONE conversation w/ my 7 year old where she doesn't cry, feed Norah at least one bottle of baby food and one piece of cheese, take a nap.



Again, lower the bar and you can get it ALL done... ;-)