A Productive Day

I tend to binge and purge with my chores. I love a clean house, but it drives me batty to clean in circles, so I don't. I have come to terms with the fact that life can go on in a messy house, and there are days when other things take precedence over cleaning. However, I can only go so long before I go on a cleaning binge. Today it was the upstairs.

It's taken me a good year to be happy in this house, and it is still a work in progress. I try to make little improvements here and there. My efforts have paid off in some regard, but there are still areas that continue to be a problem for which their is no conceivable solution. Among these problem areas are the small bedrooms, small closets, and lack of natural sunlight that makes the upstairs office feel like a dungeon. I tend to give these areas less of my attention, and with 5 kids in the house they can go downhill fast.

Maybe it's being 5 weeks away from having a new baby, but something within me spurred a desire to get these areas in the condition I want them. It required hauling a large piece of furniture upstairs from the garage and simultaneously taking a couple pieces down, vacuuming behind dressers and sorting through stashes of Legos and marbles, wiping the green scum out of a fish tank, finagling cords and extension plugs to get everything in the right place, sorting a library full of kids books, and scrubbing down the bathroom on hands and knees (actually not a bad position for the pregnant body.) Anyhow, it's done. I sit here in a clean office with a sparkling fish tank set next to a shelf full of organized books and inhale the aroma of Lysol disinfecting wipes and pomegranate-lemonade (that's my air freshener.)

It made me laugh this morning when Ashlee paused and said, "Wait, you have energy to clean today? That means you're going to have the baby." I guess she's heard me talk about the nesting instinct. After dinner when the boys saw their clean bedroom, they gave me hugs and kisses and said I was the best mom. Jacob words were, "You do so much work, and I am so grateful." I tell you nothing is sweeter to my ears than this- recognition and gratitude from the people for whom I labor.