It's been a lousy week...

Truth.

So, on the outside, life has been pretty quiet, publicly, around the Simpson Six homestead this past week. I can assure you, however, that as still and serene as it appears from the outside, inside we have been all a flurry with activity. Activities that I never in my life thought that I would be doing. Ever. Ever, ever!!

Last Wednesday morning, as I was brushing my daughter's hair I swore that I saw something move. Now, I'm not a morning person--by any means--so Jason assured me that I'm just paranoid and I figured that my eyes were simply not focused yet, as it was before 7am. So, off he and the girls go to school and I, still a bit skeeved by the thought that something was there, set off to vacuum the house and wash all of our bedding on hot. Surely clean sheets will make everything right in my world again...right?!?

Well, still not content with that, I decided to wash Ian's hair and then my hair with vinegar. It works to clean my windows, floors and bathrooms, so obviously it will give our hair a thorough cleaning. That should do it, right?!?

Well, I then bagged up all of the stuffies in the house and set them in the garage to await their turn in the laundry machines (the bedding was still running through their cycles). All was now right in my world, and I could breathe easier that my home was completely clean and whatever I saw this morning was gone--if it ever existed in the first place.

Meanwhile, Jason stopped over at the elementary school during his lunch break to take our daughters to the school nurse to get their heads checked, to report back to me that my paranoia was unfounded and everyone was just as clean and bug-free as always. Which is all well and good, except for the worst was discovered: head lice. My precious babies with flowing, golden hair had been chosen by some hitch-hiking parasites to be hosts to their own colonies of microscopic critters! When I got the call that they were coming home from school, my heart sank, and my life was put on hold until we eradicated these pests that were trying to take over our world.

Within the first 24 hours of Jason's phone call--which bore the silver lining of him telling me that I'm not paranoid, that there really was something moving on my sweet girl's head!--I washed, dried and put away 16 loads of laundry. I can't tell you how long it usually takes me to wash, dry and put away 16 loads of laundry--but I'd venture to say closer to 1 month than 1 day! Within 72 hours, that number was up to 27. Everything that cannot be washed and/or dried has been bagged up for 2 weeks or put on ice--literally! We have 2 freezers that we rarely use, so they are full of things like dress-up hats, sweaters and throw pillows. Ridiculous, but necessary to eliminate every last loose louse.

There's no food in this freezer for now!

Also, I have begun vacuuming every inch of my home no less than 3 times every day--including every stitch of upholstered furniture in our house. Bedding is still being washed daily--and will be for 2 weeks, and every head in our house has been checked, strand by strand, under a magnifying glass twice daily since last Wednesday.

And what about those sweet girls, with their golden tresses flowing down their backs?