Hopeful Consistency

So two days ago (Yeah, I know I could've wrote about this earlier, but our lives are consumed by soccer and horse back riding lessons these days. Don't forget I'm working again too. Doesn't leave much time for writing anymore.) I come home from work to a surprise. At this point, you're probably thinking "what happened now?" This is actually a good surprise, maybe just shy of a week past my birthday surprise, but none the less. I come home to an extremely clean house.

Since the Handyman was out of town, I didn't expect the house to be so clean (he usually herds them into cleaning up). Then again he could've called them and encourage them to pick up before I came home, but the three Amigos (I could've referred to them as the three Angels, but that would be completely inaccurate) insisted it was their idea (which it was, Handyman confirmed). They had washed the dishes, dried, and put them away, vacuumed the living room, swept the kitchen floor, organized all the shoes by the front door, cleaned up the bathrooms, wiped the counters down and even straightened up my piles of papers on the counters. I can't even get them to do this much on the weekend. I guess a little independence has led to some responsibility. It's a good thing, but there needs to be some consistency. 

Since this was so unexpected, I actually gave back their riding lessons today. They had lost the privilege to ride this past weekend due to some bad behavior.

Here is where the irony rears its ugly head. After only two days, my house is a complete disaster again. At least they'll be able to clean their own house when they get out into the real world. It's this kind of hope that comforts me into believing I haven't completely failed as a parent.

Enjoy your frigid Wisconsin Weekend!