We’re all adjusting to no longer having Kyla come over every other week to clean the house.  This is our first week without help, and it’s a bit rough going.  Katie got the kitchen spotless, until dinner time anyway, when spaghetti splattered everywhere.  Oh well – she hadn’t gotten the floors yet, so now she had extra incentive.  Anyway, I was giving the boys a bath so that she could get the floors cleaned, and I was talking to the boys about it.  We’re trying to figure out how to get them to think of cleaning as something we all have to help to do, without actually getting any of their help since we want it done “right”.  Katie can just about handle the boys helping fold laundry (they match socks, and fold underwear – two very important skills), but I don’t think she’s going to go for windows, cleaning toilets, sweeping, or clearing the gutters.  Anyway, I was lamenting to the boys how Kyla cleaned our whole house in less than 3 hours, but it take Mommy and Daddy 8 or 9 hours.  So I said, “maybe we’ll have to go read a book on how to clean bathrooms faster.”

Dex thought that was a great idea, and declared, “I’m gonna make one.  Tomorrow!  I’ll draw the pictures, and Daddy, you can write down the words I tell you.”

Nic was confused, “but Dexter, how are you going to make the pages stick together?”

“Uh, Uh, Uh, OH!- I know!  A glue stick!”

“A ‘blue stick’?  What’s a ‘blue stick?’”  Nic asked?

“Glue stick are – oh, BLUE sticks!  That’s funny, Nicky!”