Here's the thing: I am shocked and surprised at how messy my house still gets.
Monday morning clean up, blah. We do have two Labs, and they bring in plenty of dust, dirt, and then there is all the dog fur. My daughter Margaret and her husband have two Boxer/Labs, who visited yesterday, doubling the dust and dog fur.
Yesterday, I was busy in the kitchen. On such a dreary rainy day, baking chocolate chip cookies was just the thing to do. I put some chicken drums and thighs in lemon and lime juice, olive oil and rosemary, salt and pepper, to marinate for dinner. Then it was time to go to the baby shower. I brought some of the cookies, because once I make them, I rather want them to be all gone. I didn't eat any cookie dough this time, because that is like opening the gateway to eating more cookie dough, then a few cookies. I did eat one cookie. And let me tell you, it was good.
The baby shower was really special. The mom-to-be is my sister's second oldest daughter, my only sister Cheryl, who has seven daughters. Becky is 12 days older than Emily, and I can clearly remember the first time I held her. Cheryl's girls grew up with my kids. Anyway, the shower was encouraging, as we heard about how no two babies are alike, God makes each of them unique, and gives them into the families He chooses. It takes a village to raise a child, and we need our friends! The older ones mentor the younger ones, and make it so good for them. We are all very excited to meet this baby, she is due a few weeks after my daughter Margaret...which is coming up in less than three weeks!
So we had our nice dinner last night of mashed potatoes (I peeled ten pounds of potatoes in the living room while talking to Emily, I felt like the proverbial southern grandmama sitting in the rocker on the front porch snapping beans or shucking peas.), roasted chicken, and a nice big salad.
Lots of stuff is going, on as usual, never a dull moment here. Our older kids are planning a huge trip to Norway for Easter, there's Easter Camp, with tons of activities to choose from, mostly to get to know kids from other countries, and build their connections to God. We are still short on the money they need to go, so we are getting busy here...bringing back the bottles and cans, and I am going to check a few places to see if there are things I can buy and resell.
I have a doctor's appointment to cancel this morning, because I was supposed to get a mammogram first, and haven't done that yet. I just had one last year! And then tomorrow I have to go in for this other stuff that surprised me a few weeks back. I'm pretty sure no one likes going to the doctor, but I really really hate it. Getting weighed, blah, and hey, ignorance is bliss, I don't want to hear any bad news. I have a busy life going on here, ain't nobody got time for bad health.
Our friend who has struggled with cancer of the esophagus has had some bad news, he has a tumor in his lung that is cancerous. He has battled this for over ten years. He has a wife and eight kids, they are an amazing family and I would love and appreciate any prayers for him, and for his family. He has really worked hard to take the trials with a good spirit, and has grown in wisdom and grace, for sure. God has blessed him in the midst of his sufferings.
And that is all for this fine morning.
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I feel the exact same way!! The sunlight comes in thru my sliding doors across my hardwood floor - which should be a warm and comforting sight - but all I see is the crumbs and dust and doggie hair (oh how can my dog shed so....much in the middle of winter?) Every time I do a really thorough cleaning I tell myself that I will do the floor twice a day from now on to keep it this clean, I will swiffer every day as well as vacuum...blah blah blah....and I only have one dog. It didn't seem this messy when I had 8 additional children and 2 more cats.
Also, for years I felt like all I did was move stuff around when I cleaned. I had bins and bins of stuff all neatly organized that kept migrating around the house, but we didn't need (as evidenced by the lack of use of said items). Having lots of kids, I felt we could pass things down and pass things around as needed - which worked great for many years - until it didn't. I started finding bins of brand new clothes (bought on clearance of course!) that I put away for my youngest and forgot about until the end of that season (when he had outgrown them) which was just ridiculous considering how excited I had been when I bought them. I only have two kids left at home and I still find myself decluttering way too much. I have no idea how we didn't drown under stuff for all the years we were raising kids in this house. It's hard for me to get rid of things we may need (really hard, but not hoarder hard), but I have to honestly say that it does get easier and I have not missed, or needed, a single thing I've let go of. I just keep taking things to the thrift store, telling myself that someone else might be able to use this TODAY, and then I don't let myself shop on the days that I drop things off. I have re-donated ALOT of things back to the thrift store that I bought, absolutely sure we could use, only to find that 3-4 years later (or more), we haven't used it once. I love a clean, organized house and once I figured out that no one was going to come over and take care of that for me (wouldn't that be a treat?) I had to start purging the closets and emptying all the bins.
Good Luck!
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