The twins watch Food Network with me and have decided they want to "be Ina!"--as in, Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame. To quote Ina herself, "How bad could that be?" Not bad at all, I say. So, I let them "Be Ina" all day today. They made oodles of mess. Stirring, pouring, water, cutting pieces of paper into the bowl, spilling all over the floor. A glorious mess. WHICH of course, needed to be picked up--at some point.

And unless I am on some kind of strict schedule with a VERY LOUD TIMER to keep me on track, this is how I do my housework: pick up something in one room, dust a shelf in another, empty half the dishwasher, fold some laundry, remember to reply to an email, check calendar and realize you have a dentist appointment for the kids in 10 minutes, dash off to the dentist, flip through Better Than Your Home magazines at the dentist office which makes you feel like a total-worthless- piece-of-crap, vow to do better, stop by the grocery store on the way home, buy enough vegetables to feed a stadium of people, announce to everyone that we're going on the EAT SMART DIET STARTING NOW!, research how to roast vegetables, watch a Food Network show, fall in love with butter again, rally everyone for a massive cooking spree, make a huge mess in the kitchen, pop the cork on some red wine, unload the other half the dishwasher, do a spontaneous art project with the kids, take the puppy outside to play, notice the spots on the floor and decide to scrub ALL downstairs floors, go all crazy sweeping and urgently mopping, get all happily distracted with hubby who thinks you are quite amusing, tidy up the bedroom afterwards (ahem), finish mopping, take a shower, read the newspaper while brushing teeth, fall into bed dead tired.

Nothing much got done. But then again, we DID make several glorious messes.

I call that a successful day.