Get your weeding done for free

What? You didn't know this was a gardening blog? Well, sisters (and from the latest stats...about two brothers, both birthed by me), there are plenty of things you don't know about me and my multifarious abilities.

However, the weeding advice I have to offer has little to do with botany and more to do with progeny.

You see this picture below?



These are the items left out in my boys room yesterday morning after they left for school. And no, they didn't get up late or wake up blind. We wake them up in plenty of time for even the most indolent child to get their morning routine done.

Bed, Dress, Room. Bed, Dress, Room. That's been my mantra for 9 years now - ever since our family exploded...er, expanded when we adopted our boys.

You make your bed.
You get dressed.
You check your room before leaving. (Of course, I've always told them that if you go to bed with a neat room, surprisingly, you'll wake up with a neat room. Funny thing, I rarely go in there while they are asleep and start trashing the place so they'll wake up to a mess, but neither is there a Maid Fairy who puts things aright while they relax.)

Unfortunately, as you can see by the photo - They have trouble with the third part of my Bed + Dress + Room = Happy Mama equation.

And I'm not talking faultless here. I am a reformed perfectionist, who occasionally falls off the wagon - but since there is never anyone there to help me back into the wagon, I have found it a waste of time, energy, and sanity.

As you can guess, with 9 years to work on this problem I have had plenty of time to try ways to "assist" them. My friends love to tell their friends about the "mean mom" they know who took away every single personal possession from her 5 year old and added them back only as the toddler-slob was able to show some faithfulness in caring for her dollhouse people, etc.

I'm big into paring down to essentials. And I've always been a believer in the half-full theory. Drawers, closets, and bookshelves are much easier to keep orderly when they are half-full.

So, what does all this have to do with gardening? My new "assistance" is to require the transgressor to do 10 minutes of weeding for every item left out. Last night, I had so many kids out weeding that my neighbor came by and asked me if we were getting ready for a party.
I'm pretty sure I heard one of my "gardeners" mumble something about "this is no party"...but I can't be sure.

That picture up there represents about 130 minutes of weeding. So, things are lookin' good around here....Inside and Outside.

P.S. Come back tomorrow for the 1st day in the Every (week)Day in May Extravaganza. A bunch of us bloggers did this last year and it was loads of fun (for the first week or so).

I have what I think is going to be a fun, entertaining, informative, and constructive idea.

And for those of you who do not like surprises, I'll give you a hint. It has something to do with magazines.