Encore Performance

Meagan strikes again with an encore presentation to follow her screen-painting performance on Tuesday. Again while I was attempting to fold laundry. Again with a nearly-impossible mess for me to clean. Again. AAAAHHH!

This morning, around 9:00 the kids wanted to watch a movie, and I needed to get some things done. My plan was that I would get all of the house work done before we had to leave at 11:00 for an appointment, and then we would have the afternoon to hang out and play and do whatever.

So, I put the movie in, and left the kids in the living room while I went upstairs to start folding clothes. In the amount of time it took me to put a load of clothes in the wash and fold a basket of towels and blankets, Meagan got into the refrigerator and took for herself a new quart of fresh strawberries. She brought them into the living room (because heaven forbid she miss any of the movie while she's snacking on the snack she didn't ask for). She went through all but five strawberries of the entire quart before I found her. One by one, she bit each strawberry in half, eating the bottom half and leaving a big chunk at the top where the stems were. What did she do with the uneaten portion? Put them on the light tan couch, of course. When I came down to check on the kids, there was a strawberry line-up all across one cushion, a few stragglers on the other, and a bit squished into the carpet on the floor in front of the couch.

I think I lost it for a second. I yelled at her. I yelled at Isaac (because instead of telling me, he decided to participate - which was evident by the strawberry juice all over the front of his shirt). I sent Meagan to her room to sit on the bed and Isaac to his room to start cleaning it. I then set to work on cleaning the couch. I went through all that was left of the 'special couch cleaning solution' that came with the couch, along with the apparently worthless stain guard that I paid an extra chunk of change for. The stain didn't budge. So I started phone calls. I called my queen-of-stain-removal mother-in-law, but couldn't get a hold of her. I then called my neighbor who brought a laundry treater over that she had luck with on her couch before. I think I went through at least half of the bottle of that, and two buckets of hot water (per instructions found on the Internet for removing strawberry & other assorted berry stains). Finally, I think it all came out. However, I only had time for couch scrubbing between 9:15 (when I found her) and 11:15 (when we had to leave). So nothing else got done - again. I guess I'll be doing my morning chores for the rest of the afternoon, while Meagan takes a mandatory nap!

I think I'm about to turn into Commando Mom. My kids don't know what they've gotten into.