Oh, Dear

I don't know whether he is blessing our clean dishes or bemoaning the horror that is a broken dishwasher in a household of 9. I washed him because he was dusty and left him on the towel to dry. I don't know whether it was Bob or Lizzi who thought this would be entertaining. But since I didn't have to do the dishes...hurray! Would it be totally inappropriate to say quite sincerely, "Thank you, Jesus"? For real. This is a big blessing in my day. And the dishwasher guy better show up tomorrow....

Reality Check

Let's have a reality check, shall we?

This was my home early this morning. Or rather, the main rooms of my home. I can't make the pictures very big, because they are humiliating.

It's making me crazy.

Most of you know that I'm not really much of a housekeeper. I used to be. And I want to be. But I really struggle with having a bunch of people undo my cleanliness. Then I just give up.

Someone near and dear to me once famously commented that they always thought growing up that my brother would be the slob and I would be the neat freak, not the other way around. True story.

It's making me crazy.

I've been gone off and on for three weeks. My husband is usually a pretty good housekeeper. But on top of parenting all of our children on his own while I was gone, he came down sick. Sicker than he's been in years.

And now we see the results. Ugh. So frustrating.

I spent my day picking up stuff. Not cleaning. Just picking up stuff. I got all 10,000 of my steps in, solely by picking up things and putting them back where they belong. For reals, people. I got one room presentable. One.

I also threw out three bags of garbage. That was somewhat liberating.

And I located one of the missing binkies. That's like a lifesaver.

One of the children, bless their little heart (and I'm using that phrase in a very subversive Southern manner), asked me why on earth I was cleaning.

I answered that I like living in a clean house. I asked, didn't they want their house to be a temple?

The answer will give away which child it was: "I don't want to live in a temple. It's home. I want to live at home. And I like it the way it is."

It's making me crazy. And I mean that quite literally. My mental health is at stake here.

More cleaning tomorrow.

These last few weeks, I've pushed myself to the very edge of what I can give. I need a few days to chill. But not in this mess. Who could chill in this?

Haha. Maybe I'll just confine myself to the one clean living room. ;)

P.S. Nobody better show up to my house to clean tomorrow. I'd probably eat you alive. My post is a vent, not a plea. Although...if you want to fix that dumb kitchen drawer, I wouldn't turn you away, lol.