"Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage..."

That's like one of the only Smashing Pumpkins songs I know. I am sure Pete is horrified that I don't know more. He is the Smashing Pumpkins Man. I know that song, "1979." And that's it. But I will say that Billy Corgan has cool teeth. I've always thought so.

Anyways, that song (Is it called "Despite All My Rage"? Is it called "Rat in a Cage"? I don't know. Maybe Pete will actually comment on this post and tell me) is playing during the opening sequence of Whale Wars, a show on Animal Planet that is so addictive. The other day, Ben and I were watching Animal Planet, and the opening sequence for Whale Wars came on, and Ben started singing along: "Despite all my rage, I am still just a-ready to gooooo..." I was like, "Um, it's "just a rat in a cage." He's like, "Really?"

So, Ben made a chore chart for us a few weeks ago. It's just impossible for me to do every little bit of cleaning that needs to be done. I'm surprised at how much time is involved in just caring for children. Brushing teeth, putting lotion on eczema skin, changing diapers, serving meals, packing lunches, doing homework together, reading together, clipping nails, doing hair... It kind of eats up the hours. So my first priority is my kids, and then dishes and laundry. And then, if I have time, I try to do other stuff. But I don't often have time. So Ben made this chore chart, just to kind of help me out. He does four "chores" per week, and I do four "chores." Well, I'm supposed to do four chores, but I think I've done one, maybe, in the three weeks we've been doing this. I'm just not going to stay up until three in the morning doing my chores. If it's midnight and I haven't mopped the dining room floor, I'm going to bed, you know? He's been doing a really good job, and he's been keeping his mouth shut about me not doing a good job. And that is wise of him.

So a week ago or so, Ben cleaned the dining room for me (that's one of my assigned chores):

And he decided to remove the fireplace screen and sweep the fireplace, because we get a lot of dustbunnies in there:

He put the screen in the living room, and the kids played with it:

They had a blast pretending that they were caged animals of different persuasions... dogs in a pet store, tigers at the zoo, etc. It was really cute.