Carpet Cleaning

Usually, I do this myself. Once or twice a year, I borrow my mom's or my m-i-l's shampooer, ship the kids off and take 2-3 hours per room. When we moved in, we knew that these light colored carpets would never stand up to our family. That was 5 years ago that we thought they'd need replaced in a year or two. I've heard that professionals do a better job than we measly housewives. My m-i-l found a coupon for a cleaner she's used that was definately affordable. It's not exactly a great time (with the queasiness & exhaustion of pregnancy) to try and get the house cleaned up enough to have the carpets cleaned, but I have a problem with babies on a floor with a bunch of smelly chemicals, so now seems as good a time as any. I'm also really interested if they can do a better job than I do taking only 1 hour to do the whole house. This is an expirament. Shhhh....don't tell the carpet cleaning guy that he's my lab rat....

I assisted and oversaw, but the kids did the lion's share of the work in cleaning the house. They've done an excellent job! (I'm hoping doing the work themselves will help them have pride in keeping it clean and fear of having to clean it all again.)

This is a picture of the boys playing their favorite game - Uno Splash. The cards are transparent plastic so you can see if a card is upside down in the deck before you shuffle and you can play in the bathtub. I believe that dililegence should be rewarded. So inbetween jobs, we take play-breaks. This is one of them.

Dd#2 has the flu today, so she's mostly in bed. Dd#1 has a lazy-bug (I think it's chronic and she may fight it the rest of her life) that we are battling. The boys, however, have been very helpful this morning. They're excited to get done and watch the "worker" come clean the carpets. The plan is to watch him clean one room, while we stay out of the way - then to lock ourselves with our schoolwork in my bedroom. We'll put snacks and toys up there. That way I can catnap while they do school or play while we can't be on the carpets until Dave comes home. I would normally just leave for the afternoon, but Dd#2 isn't fit to be around people. It sounds like a crazy day, but it's just about right for a kid with the flu.