Cleaning

I have an odd relationship with cleaning.

First, if the world around me is falling a part, you most likely will find me sweeping my floors or putting toys away. I remember over 13 years ago, Joe and I were both moving away from Seattle and we didn't know which direction our relationship was going to go. My roommates both woke at 2 am to find me scrubbing the floor.

If the world is really changing, you'll find me getting rid of clutter and going through my clothes and making 'give-away' piles. In fact, both times when I was pregnant, "nesting" became an obsession. When I was 7 months pregnant with Ruby, my neighbor called to ask if we were moving since I had put 21 bags on the curb to donate for The Epilepsy Foundation. Just last week, I was looking for a purse, instead of a diaper bag, and I couldn't find one since I had given them all away.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided to not pick up one single item for the entire day. When Joe came home, I have never seen him so surprised. This was my equivalent of a mini-mid-life crisis. It also brought to light for me just how much work I do everyday that I didn't even realize. Even though Kai does a great job of picking up, I obviously do a lot more. Joe had to wade through clothes, toys, dishes, mail, boots, and art materials to find us. I told him I was tired of being a housewife.

But, most days, I grumble only a little bit and do the much-needed household tasks. Before I go to sleep, I have things pretty organized for the next day. If I don't, 8:15 am comes around a little too quickly and Kai picks up on the craziness of the day and his drop-off to school goes bad, Ruby isn't wearing her gloves (since we couldn't find them) and I miss time playing peek-a-boo because I am busy washing the dishes. I am happy to say I don't scrub floors anymore at 2 am and my high standards have dropped down pretty low which is more than Ok. My mom is so generous with her time and energy and she cleans while the kids nap when she watches them two days a week. The other month I asked if she would scrub the tub for me. When I returned from work she said she was so surprised by how dirty our tub gets in a week. I realized after questioning her more that she thought I actually washed the tub every week! I'm embarrassed to admit how long it had been...

Anyway, back to the reason I posted: My dad has a little obsession with floors that I think I've picked up on which has now been passed on to Kai. As you can see, Kai loves to vacuum and now Ruby loves to watch. It probably helps that I turn up the music when it is clean-up time. Now that I think about it, maybe the love of dance parties is in his genes too.