February 29

Happy Leap Day!

I had high hopes to do something extraordinary with my extra day this year.  But Leap Day fell on a Wednesday and its hard to fit in anything extra on a Wednesday, much less anything extraordinary.

The weather, at least, was remarkable.  Sixty-five sunny degrees this afternoon, following on the heels of a blustery rainy morning.  The children spent the afternoon out of doors and it was lovely to while away our evening in  the backyard, playing soccer with Jack, pushing Ivy in the swing, eating an ice cream treat at the tree-stump table, shooing away bugs.  Yep.  Bugs, in February.

Its a weird world.

I feel like my 30 (29) days this month has gone out with a fizzle.  I've been low on energy and this month's challenge certainly required an extra push of energy to accomplish each day.  Totally worth it, on the days it did happen... but hard to muster the motivation this past week....

What have I learned from this exercise?

That I need a full-time housekeeper.
That little details matter to me, if I let myself notice.
That I can't possibly keep this house as clean as I wish it could be, not right now.
That it is OK to embrace the imperfection.
That I can make small changes and that they do make a difference--if I can pay attention to the small things in the face of the larger chaos.
That I am not sure I am going to keep going on this one, long term.
Maybe weekly.
We'll see.

Tune in tomorrow for a new Thirty Days...

February 27

There was a school shooting today at a local high school.  A teenage student, a child really, walked into a school at 7:30 in the morning and shot 5 people.  Two of them have died.  Senseless and terrifying violence; the deep sadness of how that young person must have been failed in his life, how badly he hurt; how helpless we are in the face of the darkness, sometimes.

Puts it all in perspective, you know.  Crayons strewn around my dining room?  Endless laundry?  Dirty windows?  All of that fades to nothing in the light of my healthy and safe little family, in light of the lives entrusted to my care every day, in light of what really matters.

No cleaning tonight.  Just snuggling with my dog in the cozy imperfection of my home, being grateful for life.

February 26

We rented the Rug Doctor today.  Can't say we don't know how to have fun around here.

It is cathartic to dump all of that disgusting, blackened water down the toilet.  Cathartic and a bit disturbing, to think we've allowed children to play on these carpets...

They are much, much cleaner now.

Also, we flipped our mattress and cleaned behind the bed.  Scary place, back there.

It is much, much cleaner now.  Let's just focus on that, shall we?

It's been a quiet weekend around here, sunny and cold, calling out for pajama pants and the newspaper and random cleaning projects.  I am glad to say we've followed through on all of the above.

February 23

There are some weeks when you mostly just get by, and deep cleaning and blogging both go to the wayside.  This week has threatened to be one of those weeks; just on the edge of being one of those weeks.  But not quite.  A spontaneous visit from Claire today spurred me to some action last night.  While it was not site specific deep cleaning, it was a good midweek tidying and I'm going to count it for now.  Tonight we are ensconsed with tea and chatting so any more tasks will have to wait til tomorrow.  I'll try to think of a good one.

Late February Haiku

Twenty-three days fly
a forty degree blur of
spring wishing for snow

February 20

Happy President's Day!

Three day weekends are wonderful in so many ways.... turns out they are a boon to a 30 day cleaning challenges, too.  It was good to have a grace period today in which to finish the weekly chores that got put off during the first two days.

Today we put the couch back together and continued deep cleaning of the "under-parts" of our living room.  Also, the upstairs carpets and bathroom got a thorough treatment courtesy of Jack's bout with the stomach flu last night...  you can see I am trying hard to see the silver lining of our SECOND go around with this delightful illness, this winter.... blerg.

It was, at times, a LONG long weekend.  But appreciated nonetheless.

February 19

Tonight's deep cleaning is brought to you by Jack's Legos.  The boy dropped a couple  of the tiny little "shooters" from his new Clone Trooper ship, while sitting on the couch.  After sticking my hand down into the crack between the cushions (ewwww) to rummage about for them, and finding one shooter, the dog's comb, 2 pens, a playing card, and an unthinkable amount of general detritis, the evening's project began. The kids enjoyed taking allll the cushions off the couch and they thought the fold out bed was an untold treasure.  As I type the cushion covers are in the dryer (we'll see if we can get them back on...)  We vacuumed all the surfaces of the couch that we could reach, over and under and behind-- and never did find the second shooter.

But our couch is much, much less squalid than it was earlier today. 

February 16, 17, and 18

I have mentally posted several times over the past three days but it hasn't worked out, eh?

Sorry about that.

I've been working to keep up with the daily cleaning amidst my daily grind and a lot of laundry, and I've been doing alright, but the one thing to suffer has been my blogging.

Thursday, my relaxing evening of cleaning living room baseboards while watching Grey's was derailed when Ivy-girl decided we needed 45 minutes of togetherness at 8:45 (the precise moment when I got downstairs from tucking Jack in).  I took out my frustration on the walls, baseboards, and floor to the left of the fireplace.

Friday, we hunkered down for TV-on-the-computer, making up the Grey's episode, and I didn't get a damn thing done beyond the basic dishes.  No good excuses.  Just that Fridays are long days recently, with tutoring both before and after school, on top of the cumulative impact of life-as-it-is for the week before.

Today's been lovely, sunny and blustery and colder than it looks, in a good winter-time way.   Nat and I had lunch out together, courtesy of a playdate for the kids at a friend's house.  We went to the playground, and to the mall, and had a wonderful time playing Legos with Jack.

And, I cleaned baseboards and floors in the dining room and deep-cleaned the hallway next to the basement door. 

Not to mention all the inane typing I'm doing now.

Much better.

Happy weekend, all!  I have three days off this weekend, which is one of my very favorite things in life.  Three day weekends are just the way life should be....