The New Regime

The kids had no school today. One of the many, many public school "No School For No Discernable Reason" days. I try not to complain, though. I was a teacher myself and I know how valuable those days are, both to get work done and for your sanity!

So, much to the kids' dismay, mom was in work mode today. This means, essentially, freaking out and making everyone help start organizing some area of the house.

My kids have no idea how lucky they are.

When I was young, my dad would go in work mode when my mom would go on a trip. They had different...um, how to say it... clutter toleration levels. There! That sounded Oh So Politically Correct now, didn't it?

Anyway. I digress.

My dad would call us front and center and in a booming voice

(don't dads always look huge when you are a kid anyway? Like Giants or Superheroes.)

he would announce:

THE NEW REGIME IS HERE!!

Any my brother and I would nearly crap our pants.

We had no idea what the New Regime was.
Or who.

Or what the hell it actually meant.

All we knew was that it sounded important, mom was gone and we were in deep DOO DOO.

After this, a great deal of cleaning would occur. Leaf bags of stuff would go out. Piles would be cleared. Floors would reappear.

Kids would want their mommy.

Thanks to the Great Laughing Genetic Gods, I have the New Regime gene in me too.

I can't bear to call it that to my kids though. I lack the great booming voice.
I'm short.
And I would probably snort with laughter and ruin the whole thing.

When it was all said and done, though, things look better. The kids actually did something that didn't involve looking glassy eyed at a plugged in Gamecube/tv/monitor.

We celebrated our completion with a trip to the theater to catch a matinee of HAPPILY NEVER AFTER. Very funny movie.

And perfectly acceptable to snort with laughter.