I've spent the past five hours today cleaning the house while my kids ran around in various states of undress, watched TV, and played together (punctuated, of course, by the two of them hitting one another whenever they got bored or frustrated).

Among the things I had to clean up, in addition to the usual dishes and laundry:

• The bowl of "soup" my daughter made and dumped all over the bathroom sink and floor. The ingredients: green tea scented liquid soap, turmeric, Playdoh and water.
• The cat my daughter drew on the living room carpet (pictured) using a Dot-a-Dot marker (or "bingo dots," as my son learned to call them in preschool)
• My daughter's urine, from the playroom floor. She forgot she was wearing her Tinkerbell panties and not a pullup.
• The bag full of star-shaped sequins I used to buy my daughter's cooperation at the craft store while I was getting supplies to make end-of-year gifts for teachers. She found where I hid them and "decorated" our stairs by scattering all thousand of the sequins down them. "Look how pretty!" she said.
• Blood, from the sofa and my son's face, hands and clothing after one of his periodic nosebleeds.
• A roll of toilet paper that the kids unrolled all over the house. "Come on! Follow the tracks! They'll lead us to our home!"
• An entire bottle of glue my daughter emptied onto the kitchen table, along with miscellaneous bits of paper, Legos, wooden pieces of some craft kit and other detritus.
• Blokus and Othello boards (and all 8000 pieces that go with them) that were knocked over before the games were finished.
• A bin of Legos dumped out for a project that was not completed.

One thing I did not have to clean:

• A cup of orange juice. Caught it just in time!

Right now they are playing the "spitting game" (spraying each other with spit) while I cook dinner. I have set a timer for five minutes and promised to take them to the pool when Daddy gets home if they can refrain from hitting each other for that long.

So, school starts again when?