I like my house clean.  My kids always ask why I am always having them pick up their millions of toys scattered throughout the house.  Why I am so adamant that dirty clothes be put in the laundry basket.  Why do I want the house so clean, all the time.

My response?  Actually, I have two responses.  One is because I have self diagnosed myself with being borderline OCD when it comes to the house being picked up.  The second being the fact that, if by chance the President or any other person of importance comes knocking on the door unexpectedly, I won't be embarrassed by a mess everywhere.

I stress and get grumpy if the house is a disaster.  I am by no means saying my house is spotless.  It is far from that.  I do keep our house neat, picked up, vacuumed, and dusted.  I fall short on the OCD tendencies when it comes to mopping, hence the fact I wear shoes all the time.  It is an almost impossible feat to keep a floor mopped and spotless of juice spills and dirt splatter when there are five kids running about.  I am always wiping down something-a toilet, a counter, a table.  It is just who I am.

And the kids know this.  Yet, even after their questioning about picking up toys and laundry and cleaning, they still have the audacity to say "the house looks so clean today.  Who cleaned up in here?"

Oh, I don't know kids, I guess the little house elf magically cleaned as I was living in a parallel universe that tricked me into believing I was the one who did all the work.

The Big Guy and I go back from our weekend trip on Sunday afternoon and I was immediately jolted back into the reality that school was beginning the next day and the last-minute finishing touches had to be completed.  One of those tasks was laundry.  I ran out of time before we left and had to leave a load of laundry in the dryer.  After the excitement (okay, there was no excitement, the kids could care less that we were back) of us returning home, I went out to the dryer and to my amazement the load of laundry was still in sitting in the dryer.

"Mom, do you know where my pajama pants are?  I haven't been able to find them all weekend." one of the kids asked.

"They were in the dryer when I left, but since my little house elf does all the housework for me, I am sure they are folded and put away in your drawer." I said.

"They are not there mom.  I already looked."

My sarcasm obviously went right over his head.  Magically, the load of laundry was still in the dryer.  Which leads me to a bigger question...

Where O Where Did The Little House Elf Go?

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