cleaning house

for the record, i do not hate to clean. i actually enjoy cleaning. it's therapeutic. especially when i'm angry, or waiting for something, or just stewing about a situation, cleaning my house is something i enjoy very much.

i am partial to cleaning big and or bad messes. it's very rewarding. and i prefer to clean when i know the smaller, potentially more troublesome, people in my life are asleep or being watched or tied up with duct tape and baling twine (it's a joke) so that they are not unraveling the other end of the sock i'm darning the whole time i'm working (picture the old pink panther cartoon, p.p. is painting the wall pink right behind the trenchcoat guy who has just painted it blue).

what i do not dig is maintenance. it stresses me out. some people feel completely out of control if their house is messy. while i do enjoy a clean house, i have a hard time not turning into an obsessive witch when my house is clean. the need to keep it clean is a consuming fire. i grow horns and fangs and speak in a voice either one octave deeper or piercing enough to shatter glass. clean house, angry frustrated obsessive mama. messy house, relaxed, pleasant focused on the right things mama.

i know that using the army of children i've given birth to is the answer to this dilemma. i know that if i train my children to do their share, not for the sake of cleanliness, but for the sake of learning responsibility, that it will go a long way toward the goal of a pleasant learning environment (while pursuing the real goal of training my children). the down side with that lofty concept is that i still have to do it! i am still the one having to train and enforce yet another thing.

i'm better at fell swoops than i am at the daily grind. it means i'm good in a crisis. i rise to the occasion at tornado/blizzard/reunion/wedding/funeral or any manner of business. it's just the daily to-do list that looks ever so much like yesterday's to-do list and has a distinct resemblance to every other stupid to-do list i have.

diligence is a man's precious possession
diligence is a man's precious possession
diligence is a man's precious possession . . .

so help me God.