How clean is your house...

...when you leave in the morning to drop the kids in school? Im so curious to know. No prizes for guessing that my house looks like a pig sty (no exaggeration!) when I leave in the morning. Whoever said that theres a time and place for everything never had to do the school run, I guess! Toys everywhere! The kids room is a mess! The dining table looks like there was an explosion of cereal, bread and milk! There are clothes all over the bed! The kitchen looks as if an elephant had run rampant! (Not that my kitchen is big enough to fit an elephant!) And it drives me crazy! I hate coming back to a messy house but who has time to clean up in the morning when one is racing against the clock? The other day a friend invited me to her place impromptu after dropping the kids in school and I was amazed to see that her house was relatively clean! She does have older kids but still.... it hurt my ego! Theres no way in hell I can invite people just like that to my house. I would die!

Ashu wants to find her library book and a dozen books are in the floor. Antu drops the bowl and theres cereal everywhere. A wet towel here, a dirty jeans there, here a mess, there a mess, everywhere a mess, mess.... ARGH! Old Mc Donald is clearly not happy! Im wondering if some people employ house elves who clean up for them. This one day I had invited a mom and her child for a lunch playdate at my place after picking up Antu and the other child. And suddenly a coffee morning straight after Ashus school drop off came up too! So I had to get up, get the kids ready, make lunch, then take Ashu to school, go to the coffee thing at a friends place, then go to pick up Antu and come home with the other mom and the kid. Thankfully Hd was in town and he said he ll drop Antu and go to office. I begged him to clean up the house and leave it in a decent shape before he left the house. It was like a bomb ticking inside my head until I came home. And the man had kept his word, phew. May be its not a house elf I need after all, huh?! ;)

Long Live Grandpas!

I read MM's recent post and could nt stop grinning. Grandpas surely rock and its the same in this household where the girls think their Thatha is the best thing that happened to them after gummy bears! The girls don't even acknowledge my existence when Thatha is around. The only lap both of them fight for is their Thatha's. Ashu who is so restrained when it comes to showing her affection screamed a high pitch shriek and ran to my dad when she heard his voice at the door in Madras. She hugged him and held on to him like a lizard on the wall for five whole minutes! He is the one who tells them stories of his trademark "Singaaram Bingaaram". For hours. On the phone! No wonder Ashu says that he loves her Thatha the most in the whole wide world!

I know I'm being a total copycat but Im sure MM wont mind if I post the below photos. I have to because of the striking similarity. I swear they were nt photo shopped! :)