Cleaning up Clutter
A tornado has ripped through our home. Somehow in the last month, life has gotten away from us and we have been left with chaos. I have been blessed with a few "free" days this week, a guilty pleasure of leaving my girls with Grandmas and escaping into work, a lunch date with a friend, and putting my butt-shape back into my cushion on the couch. I've walked into the disaster area of my house at least twice each day, carefully made my way around the piles of luggage in the entryway, the stacked mail on the counter, and pointedly ignored the empty fridge. Today is the day though to rectify the mess, to put on my housewife apron and get down to it.
It's 3pm and I haven't started. Well, that isn't exactly true...I did the dishes and started a load of laundry. I opened the stack of mail and paid all the bills for the month. I sorted through ALL my inboxes (trust me, over 750 emails made their way through the trash or archives and that was amazing!). I made a phone call to a potential daycare and attempted to figure out a major banking hurdle too. It is a lot for one day but not enough. This place needs to be sparkling and I need to feel rejuvenated after it is all said and done. I'm not sure it will happen today. Or tomorrow on my last day off and the first day the kids will be home again.
Summer hit us last week and we took a much needed vacation. I packed the truck to the gills, the girls stuffed into their carseats with feet propped up on luggage and sleeping bags, excited for camping and a proper family getaway. No less than five swimsuits per girl, sunscreen and bugspray at the ready, we headed out to a tent site in Wisconsin. They enjoyed their days filled with warmth and sunshine, picnics and grill-outs, and an endless supply of water to swim in. Between the pools and slides and splashpads and beaches, we were tuckered out at the end of every night. Sleep came easily to the kids even if it didn't for Aksel and I, attempting to relax on our air mattress, not rolling lest we rock one another onto the tent floor and over one of the girls. We lost count of all the smiles and laughter and certainly lost more patience than we brought over silly feuds and fights along the way. All in all, though, it was a great week for our family.
Now that the fun is over, it is back to real life and all the mess that entails. I see the clock has jumped another hour ahead and I still have suitcases to empty, camping gear to neatly pack away. I have a pantry to restock for those three wild animals that will be walking through the front door tonight, hungry for breakfast by morning and ready to tear apart the house again, if I can get it put together yet tonight.
I should really flip the laundry, I know I should sweep and mop the kitchen floors and the toilets won't clean themselves...but I've missed the maintenance that I might be doing here in my office. I can visually see the clutter that surrounds us as we move about our house, but I can feel the fuzz of cobwebs in myself, the Grief work left untouched and the long-neglected to-do lists building in the corners of my brain. There is much to start and plenty to finish with school beginning soon and diabetes management to configure and so much more going on that I'm not sure where to begin. One space at a time, I suppose, would be the smartest. For now, I'll finish today's post and get one check mark collected on my list for myself. Then maybe it will be a simple task to jump into clearing the counters and mowing the lawn, sorting and putting away clean clothes and picking up milk and fruit at the store? I guess there is no better way to find out than to try it, one space at a time. Wish me luck!
It's 3pm and I haven't started. Well, that isn't exactly true...I did the dishes and started a load of laundry. I opened the stack of mail and paid all the bills for the month. I sorted through ALL my inboxes (trust me, over 750 emails made their way through the trash or archives and that was amazing!). I made a phone call to a potential daycare and attempted to figure out a major banking hurdle too. It is a lot for one day but not enough. This place needs to be sparkling and I need to feel rejuvenated after it is all said and done. I'm not sure it will happen today. Or tomorrow on my last day off and the first day the kids will be home again.
Summer hit us last week and we took a much needed vacation. I packed the truck to the gills, the girls stuffed into their carseats with feet propped up on luggage and sleeping bags, excited for camping and a proper family getaway. No less than five swimsuits per girl, sunscreen and bugspray at the ready, we headed out to a tent site in Wisconsin. They enjoyed their days filled with warmth and sunshine, picnics and grill-outs, and an endless supply of water to swim in. Between the pools and slides and splashpads and beaches, we were tuckered out at the end of every night. Sleep came easily to the kids even if it didn't for Aksel and I, attempting to relax on our air mattress, not rolling lest we rock one another onto the tent floor and over one of the girls. We lost count of all the smiles and laughter and certainly lost more patience than we brought over silly feuds and fights along the way. All in all, though, it was a great week for our family.
I should really flip the laundry, I know I should sweep and mop the kitchen floors and the toilets won't clean themselves...but I've missed the maintenance that I might be doing here in my office. I can visually see the clutter that surrounds us as we move about our house, but I can feel the fuzz of cobwebs in myself, the Grief work left untouched and the long-neglected to-do lists building in the corners of my brain. There is much to start and plenty to finish with school beginning soon and diabetes management to configure and so much more going on that I'm not sure where to begin. One space at a time, I suppose, would be the smartest. For now, I'll finish today's post and get one check mark collected on my list for myself. Then maybe it will be a simple task to jump into clearing the counters and mowing the lawn, sorting and putting away clean clothes and picking up milk and fruit at the store? I guess there is no better way to find out than to try it, one space at a time. Wish me luck!
Comments
Post a Comment