Chasing My Tail

I've mentioned this before, but seriously... what am I doing wrong??   It turns out I must have been absent the day they discussed "how to occupy your children for more than 10 minutes without them destroying your house so you can take a shower" in Mom-101.

Mr. Mint leaves for work before anyone else in the house is awake in the morning, so it's all on me to get everyone fed, dressed and ready for the day.  My kids are early risers, they usually get up between 6am and 6:30am, so we have plenty of time to eat a decent breakfast and get ready without feeling too rushed.  Maybe that's the problem, we have too much time.

I often feel like I'm chasing my tail if I try to get anything done. If I'm in the kitchen doing the dishes, they are in the family room dumping out the laundry I spent an hour folding so they can use the laundry basket for a fort.  If I'm upstairs getting one kid dressed, the other two are spilling cereal all over the kitchen floor because they needed a snack.  If I go upstairs to take a shower, I need to give a speech that goes something like this:

"OK, I am going to take a quick shower.  You may answer the phone, but do not answer the front door.  You may color at your art table, but no art projects involving glue or tape.  If you need a snack, wait until I get out and I'll get you something.  No hitting, biting or pulling hair.  And don't put anything in the microwave."

Today I came back downstairs to this:

Apparently I wasn't quite specific enough.  I didn't mention anything about no "art class."  I didn't say anything about not using scissors to cut up tiny pieces of construction paper and spread them all over the house.    Also, please take note of the markers that are not allowed in this particular room.  

How is a mom supposed to take a shower?  Is it just my kids who can't seem to go more than 10 minutes without destroying something in my house?  Does anyone else have this problem?  Can I get an amen, sister?  

Yes, I made them help me clean it all up.  But that just meant that we didn't have time to read their reading books before we left for school.   On the bright side, Lolly and Frostine created these cute little "potato people" all on their own.