Off to great places

I started off my career as a homemaker innocently enough. Until this year, I worked full-time while I sent my two girls to daycare. I kept my house clean enough to avoid embarrassment, but I was certainly never going to be featured in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. I always assumed that stay-at-home moms must have plenty of time on their hands to be able to keep their houses really clean; since I wasn't one of them, I would be content with so-so cleanliness.

This year, we were blessed with a third child, a boy this time. The cost of daycare didn't make it worthwhile for me to continue working, so I took the road of a full-time mom and stayed home with my children.

On the first day of stay-at-home-mommy-hood, I made myself a sweet little schedule: on Mondays I would run the vacuum; on Tuesdays I would sweep and mop; on Wednesdays I would clean the bathrooms; on Thursdays I would balance the checkbook; on Fridays I would grocery shop; on Saturdays I would do laundry. On Sundays I would rest. Simple and straightforward, I thought. My home enjoyed a full two weeks of something resembling a glossy sheen.

Then my pregnancy advanced, and I realized that I had neither the energy nor the unlimited time to keep my home clean that I had at one time imagined. (The blog detailing the busyness of being a mother to two energetic girls is a different tale, but, suffice it to say, I was unprepared for the commitment I encountered.) Chores began to slip. Gradually I turned to a once-a-month bathroom cleaning and only sweeping when there were visible Cheerios on the kitchen floor.

The thing is, I made excuses for a home that I can simply describe as "dirty" for months. First I was pregnant, then I had a newborn...but now my son is a chubby, happy five-month-old who sleeps 18 hours a day (thank you, God!), and I am out of reasons why I shouldn't make more of a go at this thing. After all, caring for my children and my home is now my career.

In the next few weeks, I'm undertaking a deep, deep cleaning of the house. I have "spring cleaned" before, but never to anything like the magnitude I'm planning. I'll be scouring, purging, and waxing every corner and crevice of the house, and I want it to be something I'm proud of when I'm done. I've found some great online resources to utilize, and I am almost ashamed to say that I'm excited to go buy a new broom. Since I'm devoting so much of myself here for the next few weeks, I'm recording it, if nothing else in order to keep myself motivated. And who knows? Maybe I'll stumble across something that can be useful to someone else as well.