Cleaning and Inspiration for More

Good Morning!  Once again a long time between posts.  I wish I could say that I've been too busy and I should have been, but to be honest the unrelenting hot weather has finally gotten to most of the family.  We are so tired of walking out at 6AM and being hit with the warm damp air, of having wringing wet clothes by 7AM, of not being able to get outside and DO anything after about noon,........you get the picture.  The warmer it is, the longer the morning chores seem to take, which pushes back other jobs, so that before you know it the morning is shot and there's really nothing to show for it.  The afternoon is even worse sometimes as, after battling the heat all morning, no one feels like doing anything and we retreat into a dark room and nap.  Lower temperatures and some cloudy days are in the forecast for the coming week, so I'm hoping this will break the cloud of depression and laziness which seems to be hanging over us all.

I don't know about you, but my kitchen is work central.  It's where everything gets done......and dropped.  During canning season I put up an extra long table to hold the canned goods to cool before putting them in whatever vacant spot I can find the pantry.  Of course, being a flat surface, this table seems to attract all manner of other things like a magnet.  It also blocks a good portion of the kitchen from cleaning, so dust has a tendency to collect for  the summer awhile before I get a chance to clean it.  Well, this is the week.  I started by putting away everything that had collected on the table. When I took down the table it actually fell apart, so out it went. Then I cleaned off and dusted the shelf above the windows which holds my stained glass house collection (purchased before children) as well as various and sundry knickknacks deemed necessary for decor.  Since I am currently in a purging fit, I got rid of everything except my houses and a cookie jar my sister had given me.  The openness of the shelves looks so much simpler and lighter.  I also know that cleaning it will take a lot less time, so maybe I'll be able to get someone to do it more often.

Yesterday, I cleaned both ceiling fans in the kitchen.  I'm ashamed to say that the dust had gotten so bad on them that, occasionally, they would throw large hunks of dust off everywhere.  They look so much better.

Today, my goal is to take down the curtains and air them out while I clean the windows.  I used to put my curtains in the dryer on air fluff to remove the dust, but since that broke at the beginning of the year, I suppose I will need to pray for a good breeze to do the same thing.  I also want to clean the one remaining light fixture in the kitchen. 

I can already feel my spirit and mood lifting.

I found a new blog the other day, Life at Providence Lodge (http://providencelodge.blogspot.com/).  What an awesome, inspiring blog!!!!  One post had a thought which I think will stay with me all of my life:  "In a large family, the mama either has to be a slave to her family, or teach them how to work together to make home a nice place to be, which takes management skills.  Her other option, is to live in a hovel where nobody wants to be, in unorganized chaos, feeling depressed."  This has been me for the last 12 years.  When we first moved into this house, my children (aged 11,6,6, and 4) were well trained in keeping a house by virtue of having one on the market.  We all pitched in and were actually a happy lot.  But somewhere along the line I dropped the ball.  I like to blame it on the fact that my mother-in-law's things were everywhere in this house and I didn't want the children to break anything, or that with 10 people (two families) with all of their belongings piled into the house, there was really no where to put anything, so cleaning was too difficult for the children to handle, etc.  While they sound nice these are in fact just excuses which I have used to lower my standards to levels unheard of except in the government.  The above quote has challenged me to make the changes necessary to make my home a "nice place to be", hence the cleaning up and cleaning out.  I can't do it by myself.  I will need the cooperation of everyone, even if it is only the having the willingness to accept some retraining.  But I at least feel as if I have a direction and a goal to attain, not to mention the feeling that the goal is attainable.

May Yahweh bless you in this new day!

Laurie