Multi-Tasking = Multi-Disaster

I've been a tad busy this week.  Oh I've got the usual mom stuff taking care of the house, making lunches, getting kids off to school.  It's when you throw in two after school activities on top of trying to paint my living room all while trying to keep up with posts and hosting a couple of giveaways on my site that things start to go wrong. 

Day one of painting on my home was wonderful.  It felt so good that I actually painted a whole wall by myself.  So the cutting in didn't blend in with the rolling but that's what second coats were for.  This is something I did sans help and/or without someone standing over me telling me how to do it better.  IE Father in law.  Last time he intimidated me so much, I gave up trying and just let hubby do it.  My FIL was a professional painter so to say he's picky is an understatement.

I digress.  Day two was somewhat trickier.  I had to take O downtown to preschool, meet up with a friend for tea, scope out a light shop and make it back in time to pick up O before heading home.  I might mention here that our city is currently under siege.... to construction.  It seems every major route in our town is getting upgrades and has been for months and it doesn't seem like it will ever end.  Some days it's not so bad and other days if you go so much as one street too far.. you're well screwed. 

I also desperately wanted to get another day of painting as my husband has informed me that if I paint every day there was no need to clean out my brush and roller. (so long as I wrap in plastic in between etc).  What a prime example of my laziness right?  Only E had jazz after school and so I needed to get home and get the wall done prior to picking the girls up from school at 2:30.  This gave me two hours to do everything on top of feeding O lunch.  No problem I thought.  After all the paint job went so well the day before. 

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.  It meant I was rushing and when you rush you make mistakes.  First, I had a hard time cutting in without getting paint on the trim or ceiling and once when I was two vigorous with the roller I hit the ceiling and we've got that textured ceiling style that's so popular in Canada.  If you wipe it the texture dissovles leaving a smeared discoloured blob.  I just barely got the wall done when it was time to slip on my shoes and run out the door to get the girls when O put his hand right into the wet paint.  Apparently you can't open the door without a little wall support too.  Sigh.  I refrained just barely from swearing and marched him over to wash his hands before leaving.  His hand print is still there.  I was bummed because I so much wanted my husband to come home and say WOW, what an awesome job. Not... it looks good dear but I'll do the cutting in for you next time.  ;)

In the middle of all this my house is a disaster.  I have taken to closing my blinds before leaving the house in case someone stops by and rings my doorbell and peeks through the window.  The furniture is all askew, I've got paint cans and paint trays on my counter, screws, outlet covers, hammers all on my kitchen counter to keep little fingers from fiddling with.  Despite this,  I still found a screw sitting on my son's headboard. 

I figured the mess would be worth living with just so my house can get painted and I thought I was doing well keeping up with the basics like laundry until O ran out of jammies and then underwear.  Um borrow your sisters. Just pick out a nice non frou frou pattern. Fortunately, he's only three so he doesn't really care. So I madly rushed to throw his laundry in this morning before taking him to preschool.  I get home to switch over his clothes only to find........ (dramatic drumroll please)  an exploded pull up in the wash.  That's right.  In my haste, I had not noticed that he had tossed a pull up in his laundry basket.  Most likely it was still in the legs of his pajama bottoms.   I've been literally trying not to gag every time I accidently touch that mushy gel stuff.  Would you believe it went through the entire wash cycle and it still looks yellow?  Yup. 

Add to all this a Meet the Teacher night, choir practice for E and getting good solid nutritious meals on the table every night.   

Okay, so no real major disasters (apart from the exploded pullup) actually have happened.  Just a lot of minor frustrations and mistakes that can easily be fixed. Still I know I piled too much on my plate this week when one of the moms approached me and asked me if I was okay. Apparently I had seemed "off" at E's dance class and they were concerned.  Which when you're trying to make new friends and hopefully arrange playdates for your kids with these mom's kids... you don't exactly want to come off as a grump. 

I do not know how you really active moms do it all.  All I could think all week was how much I wanted to sit down and read on my Kobo.  Do you find you take on too much in a week?  How do you say no?
Any tips on getting my washing machine clean from the pull up disaster would sure help!