For the record, I’ve been staring at that headline for over an hour.
1. My kitchen floor is clean! Clean *and* waxed. And I didn’t do it.
2. I have a new over-the-stove-top microwave. It’s very shiny and quite large inside. This means I get to reclaim some countertop space.
Currently, that space is being taken up by what usually goes in my cupboards, because we are dealing with yet another mouse problem. I think it’s annual, and I should get used to it, but I still find it upsetting and inconvenient and disgusting every year.
3. I sorted my jewelry (and got rid of things I don’t wear, including all the single earrings in my collection. Honestly, how do I manage to lose so many earrings?), my sock and underwear drawer (threw out all the thongs; those days are over); and my t-shirt drawer.
4. The trunk of my car is full of clothes for donation. Now I just have to make the time to donate them.
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Here’s why I’m trying to focus on the positive: Not because my life is so hard. It’s certainly not. I could (and I still might) bitch and moan about the state of my house (CATTY-WAMPUS); the fact that the children (okay, the girls) did nothing to help me out this weekend, despite repeated requests/orders/threats; I’m stressed about all of this because we are having the kids’ birthday party for our families on Saturday; and we will be out of town most of the day Thursday and some of the day Friday.
I generally let things slide, although I try to keep my house fairly orderly (if not spic’n’span clean). The case in point, of course (cases in point, actually): my kitchen floor and dusting.
The kitchen floor got done because my father-in-law decided he was going to do it. He came over Saturday morning with his floor scrubber (yeah, an electric floor scrubber, my FIL collects gadgets like this) and proceeded to spend nearly five hours cleaning, scrubbing, and waxing my floor (and scrubbing the crud off my walls too — he went crazy). This put a lot of stuff in my front room, preventing me from cleaning it.
Which, that’s fine. That’s how I managed to sort my dresser. I dusted it too. We (Dan and I) also went to Lowes that evening (after feeding the ILs dinner — pizza, since I didn’t have a kitchen in which to cook) and we are *almost* finished shopping for our bathroom (we need to buy a mirror, a door, and a shower curtain bar. And shower curtain).
This is also what happens with the girls’ room. Every Saturday I tell them to make their beds and pick up all the stuff off the floor. Books have a home; their stuffies have a home. Their clothes have a home. Getting all these things back in their homes seems to be insurmountable to my children. Plus they make a mess each week, largely with paper. The notes and drawings and bookmarks, and, for some reason, pieces of nature (leaves, sticks, acorns) that accumulate!
Flora finally went upstairs at some point on Sunday; Kate followed soon thereafter — and when I went to follow up, I found so much crap stuffed under Kate’s bed (Flora’s bed has a mattress under it) and the night side table AND Flora’s clothes dresser. I couldn’t even be that upset; I just stuffed everything in a garbage bag and threw it out. *SIGH*
Oh, and here’s the part that if I got paid to blog, I would blog the shit out of the fact that Swiffer products may be the best things in the whole world for cleaning EVER. This is really a revelation to me. Like, their dusters are so easy to use I finally dusted the window blinds in the front room, and the bookshelf, and the electronics. And I swept (regular broom) and mopped (Swiffered) my kitchen floor.
As God as my witness, my kitchen floor will *never* get that crusty in my lifetime again.
They are so easy, the children can use them.
Which gives me an idea…
I’m out of words (and positive thoughts). How was your weekend, and what’s ahead for you?
Red Pen Mama 