Gunny and a Steady Diet of Tylenol and Cake Batter

Meet Gunny. A few ground rules to know about Gunny: Gunny comes out each night around 9 to eat leftover toys. He doesn't eat shoes or lunchboxes--my kids wanted those points clarified. Gunny moves quickly when no one is cleaning, but he gets very slow if people are cleaning or as we call it, "protecting their toys." Gunny is bulimic. He throws up after 3 nights of a clear bedroom floor. If he gets overly full, he throws up into a D.I. bag. (Abigail's greatest fear, I think).

Gunny has transformed our house. After Washington, we started nightly "quiet time/cleaning time" with the kids. Starting about 8, you can be in your room quiet for as long as you like, or you can be up cleaning with mom and dad, or you can go to sleep at any time. Most nights Warren has big plans for staying up and yet, 3 minutes into quiet time, he is fast asleep in his bed. Avery struggles a bit--we're still working out the kinks with her. But Abigail, ahhh, this is a beautiful thing. Abigail used to lie in bed awake for upwards of an hour, totally quiet and still before falling asleep. No more. Gunny has harnessed that untapped power for good, and now Abigail cleans every night and then goes to bed. She really is good at it, it is so helpful and she likes it. She said tonight, "I feel happy in my heart when I help with cleaning and our house is clean." As Gunny was very full of toys, she also pointed out to me that he looked like he had a mouth. She was right. And no wonder he was frowning. Look at my kitchen. (But please don't look too long or too closely :)

I think I need a Gunny sack. Umm, this is what happens when you bake 2 giant cupcake cakes, 2 dozen cupcakes, make frosting, frost and decorate said baked goods, have 3 friends over to play throughout the day, go out to lunch for your mom and aunt's 50th birthdays, have an infant with ear infections (again) who you had to let fall asleep on you last night so she would stop screaming (and thus didn't get yesterday's kitchen projects cleaned up) and have a broken dishwasher. (Oh, and your sweet husband unloads the trunk of your car in the kitchen because he is loading up the guitar and keyboard in the trunk since they need to go the party, too.) (And you are singing at the party with your sister, so you practice your act and record the music for it, rather than clean a bit before you go.)

But it's all good. Check out this progression of shots. Smiles get a little strained as the cupcake-jealous infant's cries get louder throughout the 3 shots. We lose Avery's attention; not sure I ever had Abigail's. Warren is doing his part to hold it all together. Ha. I love photos like this. Happy Birthday Mom and Aunt Julie! And thanks to Aunt Julie, who while we were out to lunch, counseled me (wisely) that sometimes you just have to do things at C level, as in, sometimes your projects are A+, some days are just C days. Mine might have been C-. But thanks to her, I bought the pre-made frosting for the lemon cupcakes and smiled at my huge mess, knowing it would still be there for me to work on when I got home. At least some things in life don't leave without you or expire.