Oh, the smell of Clorox in the morning!

“What is that awful smell!?”

“That, my children, is the smell of motivation.”

“Oh good, because I thought it was bleach and that we were going to have to clean today.”

They are smarter than they realize.

We did start off the day with a healthy dose of de-grime-ification. I also hit the house heavy on the trash bags, pitching and discarding as much as I could, as fast as I could between cries of “Hey, I wanted to keep that!” and “That’s mine!”

I don’t care. I am the mean and cruel mother spoke of in myths and fairy tales who will force you to clean your rooms and throws away your broken toys and random piles of crap….I am SPRING CLEANING MOTHER. So rarely is this fictitious creature of lore seen around our place that when I was on my hands and knees scrubbing under the fridge, Rachael stood behind me for a full two minutes before she couldn’t take it any more and asked, “Did you lose something under there, mommy?”

No, this is what normal people do, they clean under their appliances. I’ve been trying to shield you from these strange and unusual habits long enough, it’s time you were awakened to the realities of life.

I truly detest when people say things like “Oh, my house is such a wreck”, then you go there and it looks like a Martha Stewart grenade went off in their house…organizing clutter and attractively matching throw pillows to handmade candles or WHATEVER! My house stays in a general state of disarray…I don’t fight gravity by trying to fly off my roof, so I don’t fight child nature by trying to keep a perfectly clean house. My kids can dirty and mess faster than I could possibly clean, so I live in a constant stage of “taking off the top layer” as my mother in law so politely calls it. My TOP LAYER seems to be getting thicker as the months progressed.

So, today we actually got out the tire iron and pried a few of those layers off the house, and it’s magnificent. Probably still a crud-hole of despair as far as most of those TLC-driven shows that show you how to take a 200 sq foot room full of stuff and magically put it in a 6”x8” cardboard box would think. But by Mayhew standards?? It’s ready for the flipping Queen of England to sit her fanny down for tea!

Ok, so no, that’s still a gross exaggeration, but we did get a lot of stuff thrown away and did get seriously scrubalicious today. Fun times.

After that, the kids and I took food up to have a cozy meal with our friends who are stuck at the hospital due to a fever, the Keslers. It was a nice time to break up the hospital monotony, the kids had fun running wild in the playroom and I always enjoy time spent with Mary Lynn. We also had the chance to run over and say a brief hello to one of our newer friends, Presley, who also got admitted today because of a fever. She, however, was not so happy. She was fully in miserable mode, with a very high nasty fever and we said a big prayer for her tonight to feel better.

Our dear friend Dana Bertoch is home tonight, hopefully still resting, with a serious bout of bronchitis. Even 3 years out of treatment, the body can have to work to bounce back and Dana’s immune system has never fully recharged. So, we ask for many prayers for one of our most favorite people in the whole world as she recovers from her illness.

We continue to keep the Gliddons firmly wrapped in prayers. Matthew had a tremendously scary episode early this morning when his symptoms mirrored those of Monday when he had his brain bleed. However, tests showed improvement and as the day wore on he was cheerful and active. We didn’t get to see him while we were at the hospital because my three kids have no business in any ICU unit. But we heard wonderful reports from our friends that were able to visit that he was talking and interacting well, that he was in good moods and enjoyed his friends coming to visit. We are so thankful to God for bringing Mathew this far and I eagerly wait to see the next steps in Mathew’s healing.

I also eagerly await seeing Tom Brady trip putting on his pants and completely throwing his shoulder out! GO GIANTS!!!

f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
–Anissa

PS…THANK YOU so much for the wonderful birthday wishes! I managed to go a whole day 34 years old and I haven’t broken my hip or been asked to wear a Medical Alert System for Seniors yet. But tomorrow is another day.