I am not sure what motivated me; maybe it was the crumbs that seemed to stick deep into my knees every time I knelt in the rear of the car to strap my 2 year old into his car seat, or possibly the portable, fold-up potty (which by the way is my most genius purchase) but today just seemed a little too used. It was time for Clorox wipes to jump into action!
So I took everything out...EVERYTHING! I lined it all up neatly in my front yard. In fact, if you were driving by you may have thought I was having a yard sale. I told my four year old that if she helped me she could keep any money that she found. So in the background of my deranged cleaning attack I hear my precious first born saying (over and over...loudly), "I found another money mommy. Now I have 18."
Once everything was out and accounted for, and the surfaces had been wiped down, it was time to bring in the big guns...I borrowed my husband's shop vac! There is something about a shop vac that just makes me feel more powerful, like I am really doing a serious clean-up job. "Back up, I am turning it on!" I said to my daughter. And it felt so good. I was sucking up things I didn't know a vacuum cleaner could suck up. Crayon pieces and goldfish crackers, dried chicken nuggets (I think) and even a pencil were thumping loudly as they were pulled into the vortex. There was thud after thud as my cleaning frenzy continued. At one point, as the blood was rushing through my veins, I even tried to suck up a fly that had made it's way innocently into the van. "Watch out, fly, you are entering cleaning zone." Thankfully he was pretty fast.
Finally, it was finished. And despite the stains that adorn almost every square inch of the mats, my car felt clean. As we left for soccer practice my kids asked if they could have a snack, "Yes," I said with a satisfied grin, "but you may not eat it in the car...I just cleaned."
