Saturday mornings hold a special place in my heart where I can doze well beyond the usual 6am wake-up tune of my alarm clock, where I roll over and stretch in the warm sun that has actually risen before me, and open my eyes to find that my handsome husband has brought me coffee in bed on a tray with a bright yellow sunflower!  After sipping my just-right cup of vanilla-Java while meditating on my day to the sound of singing birds and the scent of freshly cut grass, my giggling children all enter the bedroom carrying a tray of freshly baked blueberry pancakes with a hunk of salted butter melting underneath the hot maple syrup!  They all take turns handing me something special: a sweet hand-made card from my youngest, my favorite pair of fuzzy-socks from my second-born, and a completed chore list from my oldest with all of the household jobs already finished for the day...
    And then I hear the leaf-blower next door and the sound of the neighbor's car alarm wakes me up from my real stupor, at which point I rub my sleep-encrusted eyes to find that I've stayed in bed snoozing well beyond the point of sleeping-in as noted by the loud chorus of "Who lives in a Pineapple Under the Sea" drifting up the staircase.  I reach into my dresser to get my favorite Saturday morning fuzzy-socks, only to find that one is missing.  After groping around the foot of my bed I manage to locate the other sock rolled up under my covers where it had been forgotten since last weekend.  One clean fuzzy-sock & his dirty twin now on my feet, I head downstairs to see who else is up & if they have made coffee yet.  I find that my handsome husband, ever the over-achiever, has risen promptly at 5am, and all that is left of the joe is no longer hot & has some grounds in it, but I heat it up in the microwave anyhow & turn to survey the damage.  Either Krusteaz pancake mix has had a late-night party with his pals Aunt Jemima & Mrs. Butterworth, or my tween daughters (not twin,  but tween, as in not yet teen, or in-between) have been baking breakfast again, because there is batter dripping from the side of the waffle-iron & onto the floor which I discover is now also on the bottom of my one clean sock.  My youngest is happily pouring his third bowl of Frosted Flakes, strictly reserved for weekends, while simultaneously drawing pictures of Spongebob Squarepants, which he must be rather fast at because they litter the living room & dining room floor like confetti on New years.  So, I locate & kiss each one of my family members good morning & rally the troops together over my cup-a-sludge to discuss the slated, yet dreaded,  Saturday Morning Job list.  
    Monday through Friday there is work, school, sports, spin class, and meetings to attend.  The evenings consist of homework, dinner, baths, reading, and television shows that probably are a total waste of time which is why we love them, like American Idol!  So when Saturday morning arrives, despite our best efforts to keep a tidy house throughout the week, we wake to find that the dust has settled an inch thick on every appliance, the bathroom bowls are not gleaming, and the garage requires nothing short of a snow-shovel to get through the piles of shoes, backpacks, and sporting equipment piled outside the laundry-room door, which is also over-flowing with it's own smelly loads!  Since I don't really own a Self-Cleaning Home, that leaves just one one thing to do:  clean-up the house, which is very different than picking-up the house, before anyone is really allowed to chill & enjoy their Saturday.  Given the fact that I seem to be the only one not immune to the stench of old milk, full trash cans, and sweaty t-shirts, I can understand why they all let me sleep in so late on Saturday mornings!  It is  like they have their own Secret Saturday Society of Stinkyness and the number one club rule is Don't wake mom, she'll make us clean!  
    In a perfect world things would always stay clean, but then again, we wouldn't appreciate clean unless we really knew dirty in the first place!  My kids are hard workers once I get them a-workin', and so we get the usual done because we know that we have to.  And though there may be quite a bit of grumbling at the get-go, every one settles into their tasks with gusto once the jobs get going.  We get some great music channels on TV that play very different stuff than our local radio stations and without all of the commercials, so I like to put it on the Dance Music Channel to put a swing in the sweeping, and a disco in the dusting!  In the end, Saturday morning chores make a good transition from work-week to week-end, and we're always proud of our clean home & ready let-loose once the litter-load has been lightened!

    -cheers!

The Woolite Rug Stick can remove pet & people messes in a snap, & the smell is good too! www.amazon.com

To remove those ugly marks from the doors, walls & baseboards, give one of these to each kid & have them scrub those marks that are below the height of your waist!  That will save your walls & your back!  www.walgreens.com