Today I tackled my hardwoods. More specifically, the kitchen hardwoods. It’s such a huge task and I hate doing it. Not because I dislike hard work. Not because as I move each chair out from under the table they make the sound of a suction cup popping off the floor. Not because as I pull the high chair out from the wall I notice the food splatters all over it that now beg for my attention. And not even because at some point during the sweeping and/or mopping either one or both of my kids will undoubtedly come running through the kitchen leaving little footprints behind in an area that I had considered finished.
Nope. The only reason I hate cleaning the hardwood floors is because by 6:30 this evening, they will look the exact same way as before I started.
It’s Pointless!
But one fun thing that has come out of Floor Duty Day is Fort York. For some reason, it seems that the day I choose to mop the floors also happens to be the day that I wash the sheets. This means that the kids gravitate toward my room with blankets and pillows laying all over the place. Taking a diving leap onto oversized throw pillows and crash landing into piles of fluffy blankets seems to be a big adventure. But it wasn’t keeping them occupied long enough for me to finish the job at hand.
So I thought back to my younger years when I enjoyed making “forts” out of misc blankets and chairs around the house. It was like having a secret hideaway just for me. I thought my kids might like it too.
So I pushed together, back to back, the 2 suede chairs in the sitting area in the master bedroom. Then I scooted the ottoman up behind them for the “back” of the fort. Next I grabbed our bedspread and draped it over the whole thing. At first I had the comforter hanging down low over the opening so no one could see in, but that made them a little nervous. When I opened it back up they thought it was a perfect spot to play. They grabbed pillows, blankies, Meo’s, and the basket of zoo animals, and had a little playdate all their own.
4 Comments
How cute…and how resourceful! I see you’re still building forts you don’t play in…but now you have to put everything back! :) This reminded me that when my mom used to scrub the kitchen floor she would put all the kitchen chairs in the living room. She faced them all the same direction and we would climb on them and play “train”. I haven’t thougtht of that in years!!
Oh, I used to love games like this when I was a child!
I used to love making tents in my room and begging my mom to let me sleep ‘in’ it… i didn’t care that it was just a sheet tucked into my dresser and held down on the other side with books.. it was a tent! :)
Yes, I should be commenting on how sweet the tent is – but, you know me, I can’t resist commenting on the fact that I hate doing the floors too! And, all for the same reasons. I could so totally relate to everything you said from interruptions, to little footprints, to it looking as though it had never been done only hours later!