Something's gotta give? Done.

Thoughts on Cleaning, as I spent my six unalloted hours of May, 2014 partially cleaning my kitchen, dining and living rooms:

 When they say "Something's gotta give" apparently for me, it's a no-brainer. Cleaning goes.

 There are people who vacuum everyday. My Eldest Sister is one of these. I am vacuuming up both Easter grass and Christmas tree pine needles.

 I dust with a shop-vac.

 I have brought this upon myself. As I have a house, animals and child(ren)- I don't see that the sheer number of kids makes the difference as much as the kid itself. And, I have also brought this upon myself by having dishes, furniture, an indoor toilet, a refrigerator, clothes, food, dogs....which all provide kids, adults, wind, bugs and dust opportunities to coat the home in dishes, food, clothes, dog hair, dirt, hair and bugs. If you have a place to sit, someone will sit in it. If you give them a place to rest their feet, and place their beverage, they will do so.

It would dismay my mother, and hopefully be no surprise to my m-i-l, that they keep much neater, cleaner houses than I do. I say this would dismay my Mom because if you ask her, she will tell you she is not a cleaner of houses. Yet, if you wandered through her home, you'd not agree. And, I think she might entertain the illusion that her Youngest (me), keeps a tidy home. This state of denial is possible as I live a day's drive from my parents, and they rarely stop in. ( I say rarely because I did get a call, while we were living in TBC, that they'd like to stop by for an iced tea. This was an unlikely request being that they lived in Tennessee, but a welcome one. I was laying a brick patio that day, and I don't recall that house being in this one's current state of dishevelment, which may have supported the illusion.) My mother and I approach house living/cleaning in a similar way. When you have a project to do, you do the project, allowing the house to do it's own thing. When the project is finished you look around, and get to work, and then you have a completed project and a clean house. But while the project is happening, the house? Not too much. Unfortunately for my house, I have been working on a project for 5 months.

 My Mother-i-l is an organized one who I believe has always kept a tidy home.

 House cleaning takes place for me in two instances.
- The house is distressing me so much that I am thinking of moving, which then leads me to the realization that no one would ever buy the house in this state, and I begin cleaning, after which the distress and the moving thoughts go away until the house demands it again.
- I decide to entertain.
               -No one has come over since my kidney stones in March, and then I didn't care because I was dying of kidney stones.
               -Feeling like your dying helps you not worry about your mess.
               -I'm glad I'm no longer dying of kidney stones.

 A room doesn't feel clean and right to me until it has flowers.

 If there are flowers I can overlook some cleaning shortcomings.

 My work of six hours will be undone in much less.
 Which, is a blessing. My house is full of kids, animals, dirt and love.