Life… I guess

Keeping my house clean has been much like chasing a locomotive: a lost cause. My kitchen spins me in circles until I’m dizzy, the laundry suffocates me and the bathrooms and floors… well, they’re just evil. My house has turned against me, or so it seems. Four against one. I clear the piles of muddy shoes, socks, boy-underwear and tools off the front porch – they reappear in greater volumes; I take out a loaded bag of trash – another is right behind it; I pat myself on the back for finishing the laundry – the hampers look as though they haven’t been touched in a week. Clearly, something isn’t adding up here. How is it that I spend nearly 24 hours a day in this house, cleaning what feels like non-stop and yet – YET – I am consistently drowning in housework? It might have something to do with having three young boys and one grown one to pick up after, and the fact that they do bare minimum house work doesn’t help either. Let’s see: five people messing up the house regularly + one person cleaning up after the people messing up the house regularly = the reason the house won’t stay clean. Now, if you think I’m on here to carry on about how much cleaning I do and how all my effort to keep the house clean seems like a big waste of time and how tired I am from cleaning and how awful it is to not have time to mop the kitchen floor then you’re absolutely right. A perfectly clean house is one of my top goals in life; but maybe not too “top” since I’m sitting here writing about it instead of working. (Wow, I’m so tired my head feels like a bowling ball). Anyway, I am going to stop worrying about how messy the house tends to be and maybe stay outside all day everyday so nothing gets any worse.

Honestly, I am not able to clean for extended periods of time (or just don’t have the energy) because I’m raising three wonderful boys; spending 40 minutes reading to the kids, an hour here and there playing with the baby, 20 minute pieces of conversation with the boys throughout the day, 3 hours of fixing and serving enjoying meals/snacks together and countless other distractions that bury me deeper in housework are entirely worth every second. Looking back on raising my kids won’t be filled with regret on how dirty my house was but with joy at how many memories we  made even when the chores piled up in the middle of it all. House, you may be a big monster right now, but just wait until my youngest is a few years older… just wait… you won’t be any match for me then. I won’t always be chasing this train… or at least I hope not.