Lent is Coming...

Lent is hard.  I always think of it as this grey barren wind-swept plain of our faith, or to quote Douglas Adams, "the long dark teatime of the soul." 

And to be honest, I kind of love it for that.  It's cold and bleak and makes us take a long look at our lives and the state of our souls.  Lent is a time to pare down what we dislike about ourselves and try to build up what is good and pleasing to God.  I'm kind of lazy when it comes to challenging myself to be better.  Lent is 40 days in which the point is kind of to make myself work harder at being who I actually want to be instead of who I am used to being. 

This year I resolve during Lent to work harder at generally cleaning the house more regularly, things like sweeping and vacuuming weekly, and doing dishes nightly instead of pretending I don't see them as they pile up on the counter.  Picking up the nursery and our bedroom because it is very easy to think to myself, "no one ever sees these rooms, so it doesn't matter if they look like this."  I actually like having a clean house, I just don't enjoy all the work that goes into it.

I also resolve to be less offended by the tone of peoples' voices when they talk to me, because tone is so easy to misinterpret.  And, I hope to try to be more diligent about saying my Rosary.  I would also like to write more.

So, Lent is coming, I'm going to be as hopeful as I can in the next week.

But really, Ash Wednesday makes me cringe. 

Order from Chaos

The blog isn't the only thing that's gotten a facelift in our lives lately.  For some reason I've felt a strong need to simplify just about everything.  I have never been much for housework and since we became parents my motto for house cleaning was "we can do it later, just play with Elijah."

That meant dishes were piling up, laundry wasn't getting done, and I don't even want to tell you how badly the floors needed sweeping.  Actually the dishes didn't usually make it a long time without getting done because my parents would do them when they came to watch Elijah on Thursdays.  While this was helpful, it made me feel like the world's worst wife and housekeeper.

Then, I came home to find they had not only done the dishes, but also swept the downstairs bathroom, which gets bad because it's also where the litter box is.  I knew it was time for a change.  That night I stood at the white board on our refrigerator and came up with a weekly chore list.  Each day of the week has one chore or one room to be cleaned, that way we only have to do one thing a day and everything gets cleaned every week.

Monday--dust and general pickup
Tuesday--bathrooms (sweep, clean fixtures, clean mirrors)
Wednesday--kitchen (dishes, countertops, sweep, take garbage out if necessary, clean out fridge monthly)
Thursday--sweep and vacuum (stairs and two main living areas)
Friday--laundry (either fold, or move it along in the machines)
Saturday--pay weekly bills, an work on Nathan's office

Okay, so Nathan's office is our one really really horribly messy room.  He doesn't care and I just do my best not to go in there (I say as I type this from his computer).  Also, Thursday usually means I sweep before work while Elijah is playing and Nathan is meant to vacuum after Elijah goes to bed, but he's been busy and sick so it hasn't been done.

And the laundry gets done throughout the week, Friday is just in case I get really behind.  So far, things have been going very well.  I also finally had enough of digging through the linen cabinet and not finding what I was looking for.  I bought two Sterillite bins and a little set of drawers and created a sense of order in there too.  I found a TON of toothbrushes and the pacifier thermometer I bought the first time Elijah got sick and lost as soon as I put it in the closet.

I also brought a new order to the kitchen so that all the food fits in the cabinets instead of crowding the counter and the book case I had my cookbooks in is now a shoe rack by the front door.

I'm quite proud of all my efforts.

 I love these cabinets above the stove.