DH and I have spent the past four days snowed in with the kids. It's been surprisingly pleasant!

The skids and BS have the Wii set up in the living room. So when DH and I weren't sharing the kitchen table to do school work (we're teachers) we were either playing games with the kids or snuggling in our room watching TV.

Last night, he tells me I have been amazingly non-whiny the last few days, and he was pleased with how well I was ignoring the pile of dirty dishes. He asked if instead of worrying about dirty dishes to cook the next morning if I'd like to take the kids and venture out in the snow to our favorite breakfast place.

Hell ya! And then he went off and did his pile of dirty laundry that's been growing for 3 weeks since I disengaged with laundry for anyone but me and BS8. 2 hours later, he even had the stuff dried and hung on hangers and organized in his closet the way I like it.

Before we left this morning, he said he'd been thinking about something we saw on the TV show Wife Swap one of our days off... "REmember that lady who only cleans 15 minutes a day? What if we all cleaned at the same time for only 15 minutes? That would be like an hour and half of work!"

Who is this man?! How long will he stay?!

We had a great time at breakfast. I'd put a deck of cards in my purse to keep BS8 busy. WE've been learning some card games, and the other kids wanted to join in. It was so nice to all be out and be laughing together; enjoying each others' company...

After dinner, he called everyone into the kitchen and told them it was chore time. DH told them it had to be in a family area, and be something that would benefit the family. He told them he would set the timer for 15 minutes and everyone had to work till the timer stopped. He told them if it wasn't done in that time, we would continue to work until it was done. DH then slipped over to me, and quietly told me to clean our room and stay out of the way because he was going to handle it.

Puddles from snow were mopped, dishes washed dried and put away, bathroom clean, Wii organized, carpet vacuumed, stuff dusted, microwave scrubbed, leftovers fed to animals, fire wood carried in, trash out, a load of laundry started... Everyone helped. When DH realized SS15 was hiding- he called him out and gave him extra chores!

Amazing! My house sparkles and smells so nice! And it only took 5 people working for 20 minutes! And I didn't have to lift a finger!

I keep bragging to him and the kids how nice it looks. SS14 says it would be nice if everyone cleaned up after themselves so we wouldn't have to do it again. DH says we're doing it every day until people can learn to clean up after themselves. I can hear SD17 now saying to SS15 to make sure to put his dishes up, and she complimented him for cleaning the mirrors... Granted, his come back was "Yea, I thought you should see your ugly face better." But I could see he was happy for the compliment about a job well done.

I'll keep my fingers crossed this does happen often... It would be such a weight of my shoulders!