What happens when my back is turned

One of the things we've been working on here is chores and helping.

So.. yesterday I was doing laundry and the kids were loading the dishwasher after breakfast. The washer and dryer are in a room right off the kitchen. And I hear, "let's put the soap in an turn it on"

I call (yell?) "NO do not turn it on, it's not full."

I hear more arguing about who gets to pour the soap.. I repeat, leave it OFF, leave the soap alone.. (they seem to never hear me when I tell them not to do something.. only when I tell their sibling they can have poptart for snack from the other side of 3 closed doors and up a flight a stairs.. I know.. it's an area that needs improvement)

I was NOT thinking of what soap they were putting into the dishwasher...


So... this is a learning experience for me. I knew it was a bad idea to leave that soap there because I'd hear rumors and stories of running a dishwasher with dish soap filling kitchens with bubbles.. and I wasn't thinking we'd risk it.

I wiped as much up as I could and then rinsed, rinsed, rinsed..

GALLONS of water. And the bottom of the dishwasher was FILLED with bubbles. I'm thinking the rumor of what happens might be accurate.

Drained the dishwasher, repeated.

After dinner (remember, this happened right after breakfast) I went to load the last few dishes and the bottom STILL had 5 inches of bubbles.

So.. that was our experience- just in case you don't want to repeat it at home.

It took the better part of an hour to clean this up.. and I wonder why I always seem to run out of time.. And you know what 1/2 of the brood were doing at that time.. causing mayhem and destruction. The other half thought trying to "help" aka trying to climb in and reach the bubbles or finding water to pour in the vicinity of the dishwasher.... I think that was the time period where Kayla ran smack into a door giving her a massive bruise and cut (not deep enough to need stitches, but significant enough to warrant a few bandaids..and have the 'oh man, is she doing to need stitches on this 3 inch mid forehead gash and knowing how much fun THAT would be..) THAT took another 30 minutes.. then 3 diaper changes, bringing him back inside 4+ times from him escaping, sweeping up the entire canister of oregano that the dog chewed and then spread over the house.. (at least it wasn't onion or garlic..) I suspect the toddler was involved in the spice demise incident. I don't have proof but he smelled a bit like a meatball..

And if you think what they can do when I'm doing laundry is bad... wait til you see what happens when our diaper shipment/customs clearance/delivery/pickup has issues.. Yes.. every time. The little shipment of pins went spectacularly, I thought 'gee, we must be getting the hang of this' but.. no.. we do not. Every time. EVERY time there are things that come up. Some big, some small but everyone of them require me to spend oodles of time on the phone and computer to try to straighten out.

Soo.. give me a few days and I can guarantee I'll have more than plenty of ammunition, (uh, pictures) as to WHY I need to get out of this business and get a normal job.. like the fact that as I sat on hold, 20 minutes ago, my son went upstairs to launch his lego plane from the second story to see if it would fly. Unfortunately my stairway is a dead spot for cell phone usage, so It's hard to run upstairs and interfere without loosing the call. And since I don't have a pop tart to mention eating as snack, they're not going to hear me from more than 2 feet away.

And.. would you believe? Planes made out of legos do not fly. At least not on the first 2 attempts before the idea was abandoned as "not much fun." but the legos are where they landed. *sigh* once I'm off the phone I'll go enforce the pickup your crashed vehicle rule...