Update on the Dirt Battle

I am sure many of you are wondering how I'm doing on cleaning my house. Well, both of you. Except, you, Kevin, since you've been here lately, so you know where I'm at with this already. But I digress...

I am still chipping away at my house. For about a month now, I've been more or less doing what my schedule says that I'm supposed to be doing. I've hauled a number of boxes away to goodwill and the burn pile. Each room is roughed out--it can be vacuumed, and at least the dirtiest parts have been wiped down. I had no idea how dirty my house was. I've painted our master bathroom--it had never been painted in 10 years, and had smudges not only from five years of our family, but also three other renting families before us...ew! So that's WAY better, although it took me several days to adjust to the color. Our bedroom is in bad need of paint also, but I want to paint the trim around the house first. It's really bad.

To my perception, it is still really embarassing. I don't have a hope of making it all spiffy. BUT, several things are really nice: I can have company whenever I want, and the house is pretty close to as good as it can be for now. When the day's chores are done, they are done: we can play, and I don't have to feel like I should run for cover when my hubby's truck pulls in, no matter what nonsense I'm engaged in. And things just go smoother like this. If someone gets sick, they have a clean toilet to barf in. If you need a piece of paper or pencil, it doesn't take a half hour to find one. My cell phone has a place that it belongs, and on a good day, I can answer it when it rings instead of going on a frantic hunt. When I get up, I can make breakfast because there are no dishes in my way. I've arranged storage in each of the bedrooms for the items they contain. It isn't necessarily perfect storage--metal office shelves in the little kids' room, stacked wooden boxes making closet shelves in another--but things aren't in heaps so much, things can be put away. It's getting more practical every day.

I am tired. I got fed up this week and wondered if normal people spend this much time cleaning. According to the internet, yep, they do--and normal people don't have such helpful children as I do, either. I can't complain. It's a very good life, even with scrubbing floors. And getting my chores done makes me free to give, which is a great pleasure.