The Phrase of the day is Flick it in

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. I'm not sure why, I slept pretty well. Gray was fussy for the last two hours of the night and that might have been what did me in. But, anyways, I woke up in a pissy mood. I tried meditating, but it didn't help. A judicious dose of chocolate? No help there. I didn't want caffeine. What to do?

Well, rather than have a bad day at school I decided to have a mental day off.

I'm lucky that I live where I do. We have sunny weather for most of the year. But the last few days have sucked! I think I've got a touch of SAD, but usually it doesn't affect me too badly. Today is the type of day I wish I was childless. I just want to curl up on the couch with my knitting, under a cozy blanket and watch the day go by.

No such luck.

I've got 4 kids who have been housebound the last few days. Gray can handle it better than the other three. Today is our co-op day, if the weather had been good, I would have packed a huge lunchbox and just spent the day in the park. Let them run around, soaking up the sun, playing, building, running, and being crazy.

But no. We are inside. Playing games, watching too much TV, eating popcorn for lunch, playing with playdough.

Sounds idyllic doesn't it? If it weren't for the fighting it would be. Lets not forget the torrential rain, intermittent thunderstorms, and occasional hail.

So, rather than fall into despair (Oo! Wait! Too late.) and pondering the possibility/affordability of putting the big three into school next fall, I'm cleaning the house. Why? A clean house makes me feel better. And I want to feel better right now.

In the mean time, I'll pick things up, put them away, clean surfaces, and scrub toothpaste Gwen has smeared on the bathroom counter and mirror. We may not do school today, but we will have a cleaner house.

The Amazing Longevity of Cat Pee

My mother has spent the better part of the last week and a half moving out of her apartment to my Grandmothers house. We moved into that apartment in December of 1990. The landlord, one of her co-workers, told us that the previous tenant had cats who had peed everywhere. He promised that he'd replace the carpets awhile after we moved in. This never happened. So my Mom has had the same carpets for over 19 years.

When we first moved in, the cat pee smell was noticable, but as the years went by, it became less and less until you could no longer smell it.

Until recently.

I went into her apartment Sunday afternoon to retrieve some of my things and was hit in the face with a blast of cat pee smell.

Who knew that cat pee was so potent that it could still stink up a place after 20 years? Yuck!

I hope the landlord finally replaces the carpets.