Housekeeping, a nice, hot shower, and a bit of brutal honesty

My day began much like every other day this summer, with Hallie's subtle hints to coax me gently out of bed.  "GET UP, MOM!  Will you get me some juice and turn on cartoons for me?"  Ah, good morning to you, too, Sunshine.  Now, I've never been one to wake up whistling, but I've always tried very hard to put on my happy face and make nice for the kids.  First impressions are important, after all, and I always want to set a positive tone for the day.  So, I greeted her "enthusiasm" with a smile and a big hug.  She returned my efforts with some comment about me needing to take a shower.  People who say things like, "You've got to love the honesty of children" clearly don't have brutally honest children, or at least aren't the brunt of said honesty.  Nevertheless, Hallie began the day in a good mood, so I had high hopes for a great day.

I wasn't disappointed.  It was a great day!  It was one of those days, though, where you feel like you moved around all day but when you finally look around, you can't see even one productive thing you actually did.  My only real goal for the day was to clean the kitchen and straighten the den.  Due to a variety of distractions, both self-imposed and child-created, this took me all morning.  Leah did her best to help by starting the dishwasher (that was, incidentally, full of perfectly clean dishes), dusting the floor in the den with Pledge - lots and lots of Pledge (this created quite a treacherous pathway from my bedroom to the kitchen), and helping with the laundry (which was actually just her unfolding a bunch of already folded clean clothes).  I finished off the morning with a nice, hot shower accompanied by the sounds of a chorus of angels singing to me from the other side of the shower door.  Well, it wasn't exactly a chorus of angels.  It was just one angel, Leah, and she wasn't exactly singing.  She was screaming.  Mad at me, of course, because I wouldn't let her in the shower with me.  She tired of that after a few minutes, though, and ran off to find Hallie.  After my shower, I found her playing happily in the backyard with her sister.  Buck naked.  Would've been better off letting her in the shower with me.

The day ended on a high note when Hallie proclaimed a great and noble truth.  Her father had highly offended her delicate sensibilities when he ordered her to put on her pajamas for bed.  I had already told her once to do it, and she was taking her time getting to it.  When Kevin made his "suggestion" that she get a move on, she became very agitated  and with a huff and a puff stalked over to me.  Obviously exasperated with her Dad's attempt at controlling her, she loudly cried out, "Mom, he thinks he's the boss of this house!!  YOU'RE the boss of this house!!"  Ah, now there's some brutal honesty I don't have a problem with.