The Witching Hour
There is an hour (or two) when the kids go crazy almost every single day. It's the hour or so before dinner. It doesn't matter what time you eat...if you eat at the same time every night or if your dinner time varies from night to night. Even if you don't know what time you're eating that night; somehow the kids know and are run around like banshees the hour before you eat! Josh (my husband) and I call this hour the witching hour.
This is what usually happens in my house:
Josh gets home from work. I try to give him 15 minutes or so before I put him in charge of the chaos. Then his job is to try to keep order while I cook dinner. Problem number one: our kitchen is totally open to the living room. I originally thought this was a great thing. Yay! I can see the kids while doing dishes, cooking, etc. WRONG! The girls treat the kitchen as a race track, running circles all around me while I cook.
Problem number two: Emerson, 16 months, loves me so much she wants to be with me no matter where I am. Not that she doesn't love her Daddy. She adores him! But, she thinks it's really fun to be in the kitchen with mama, trying to act like mama. She opens cabinets, takes things out, and tries to touch the stove. And when she's not in the kitchen with Mama, she won't just sit next to Daddy on the couch reading books with him--she wants to run across the couch, throwing all the pillows off.
Problem number three: Adeline (our almost 5 year old) knows I want her out of the kitchen, but she loves to cook! She wants to help me cook...but then it's really impossible to keep the baby out of the kitchen. And when Adeline isn't helping me cook, she tries to get her sister to chase her all around the house...including chasing through the kitchen.
So, this is what we go through almost nightly. And by the time dinner is ready, I'm frazzled and everyone else is crazed. I'm thinking of buying a big bubble to put the girls in so it's easier to cook. Who knows? Maybe I could be making wonderful gourmet meals but am impeded by the craziness.
Luckily, after dinner is calmer!

The State of My Bathroom
I used to have a maid. When my husband and I made the decision that I should stay at home after our second child was born, the maid was something that got cut from the budget. Most days, it's not a big deal that we don't have a maid anymore.
Then...I walk into my bathroom. I'm pretty good about keeping up with laundry, the kitchen, dishes, etc, but my bathroom is the most neglected area in the house! I clean the girls' bathroom because if I didn't, CPS might come take them away! I keep the guest bathroom clean because...EWW! You don't want guests in your house to think you're a disgusting person. (Even if it's true). I just haven't figured out how to get my bathroom back into the rotation!
It's not like I NEVER clean the bathroom. It just never gets cleaned all at one time anymore. And I know it is bad when Emerson, my 15 month old, followed me into there the other day and I told her, "No, Em! Don't touch, it's yucky."!! LOL. Guess that means it needs to be cleaned!
So, I miss maid day. I miss coming home at the end of the day and having the whole entire house clean at one time. But--I don't miss it enough to go back to work! :-) Someone just needs to gift me a maid service...even a one time cleaning would make me deliriously happy.