This is real life

Sometimes I don't get everything done.  Most of the time, probably.  

This is real life.

I've been trying to contain the plethora of toys everywhere by putting away a few sets of things that were driving me crazy.  It's sort of working.

Then the Bean wants to color.

This happens roughly 10 times a day.

I tape these re-used posters from J's work to the floor (because they're slippery!) and she can color to her heart's content for a few days on the same paper.  And it makes for a colorful entryway too.

Sometimes Minnie likes to help.

Sometimes the crayons run away from home. 

(Did I mention that they're washable crayons?  Really fabulous parenting choice by me, considering that she's already drawn on a leather chair, my side of the bed, and the front door. Everything came off with water!)

 Did you notice that there are 10' PVC pipes all over the living room too?  They're for a super secret project that I'm almost finished making.  For now, Z likes to pick them up and scream into them, surprising herself with the distance of sound every time. :) It's super cute.

I guess what I'm saying is, embrace the chaos.  And if not embrace, at least find the cute side of it!  (We won't talk about how many dishes are in the sink right now.)

Parent Product Picks: Let's Get Cleaning!

Once in a while, I come across a product that is really awesome.  And since I didn't discover it before I became a parent, it becomes a Parent Product Pick.  Whether or not you actually need to have a child around to use it is subjective; but in general, I find that these things make life a lot easier, especially when you might have limited time to do household chores.

Parent Product Pick #1: Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day Concentrate.

As you may be able to tell by my re-purposed container up there, I used to buy a lot of Method products. But now that I discovered this, no more!!  This stuff is concentrated, i.e. you add water to it to get it to the strength you need.  After doing copious amounts of math, I ascertained that I could add 2 Tablespoons of it to my entire container of water, and this was a relatively strong solution.  Cost? $7-$8.  Compared to Method? Those sell for 3/$7 on sale, but I've already refilled my bottles three times with the amount that's gone from the Mrs. Meyers.  At that rate, I expect this to refill at least 24 bottles before I'll need more.  It's good as a countertop cleaner, bathtub scrub, and general surface cleaner.  I don't know that I recommend it for mirrors, but really, I don't have any cleaner that does that very well.

Parent Product Pick #2: Seventh Generation Disinfecting Wipes

Sometimes you need to disinfect things.  Or you want to half-assedly clean the bathroom before guests come over.  Whatever, I won't judge you.  These wipes will do the trick!  And... no bleach!  Their active ingredient is thyme oil, which smells nice while killing germs.  I use them to clean off table tops, the fridge doors, door handles when people are sick, and yes, the aforementioned bathrooms sometimes.  The only thing that could be better about these is if they sold the refills in plastic baggie things like baby wipes.  The container is recyclable though, so I guess it's not so bad.

In short, I recommend both of these products!