When I was a child, Christmas and Easter were "spring cleaning" times. Our house was always clean, picked up and tidy but twice a year we had to clean EVERY.THING..Walls, ceilings, base boards, windows. Now in and of itself this isn't a bad thing but remember the house was already clean!! and we had to do all this work before the Christmas tree or the Easter baskets could come down from the attic. When you are 6, this is really a torturous time.
Fast forward to my own little ones....no the house wasn't always clean, the dishes, laundry and bathrooms were kept up and the trash taken out. I always said I accomplished just enough to keep the Health Department from condemning. If you don't remember...look at the top of this blog, we had eight children, six of which were 2 years apart and a Daddy who kept everything he has ever owned (almost). My aunt used to say..."I mop my floor every day! Some days with kool-aid, some days with milk..." Totally understood that one!
Suddenly I saw the wisdom in my mother's iron resolve......I could get these little sweeties to help clean the house!! Genius!! So Christmas and Easter cleaning became a bi-yearly event. Top to bottom, inside and out, every cabinet, drawer, and toy chest cleaned, scrubbed, and de-cluttered...except Dad's stuff, it wasn't going anywhere. He would wait until Christmas Eve and take the tools out of the house and put away his mail and magazines, but hey, he did have a real job;)
Let's fast forward again..present day. The kids are all grown and the house is a bigger mess. Well the house is bigger and I am older. I would rather do other things than clean, so I do. Still twice a year I wash windows and de-clutter (except for Dad's stuff). I have to thoroughly clean so I can decorate. What kind of mother would make the kids clean their room and not clean her's? I should have thought of that all those years ago because they haven't forgotten. They will ask me if I have the tree up yet which is code for: Is the house clean so you can decorate? So I cleaned my sewing room...took two days, and it is still full and not organized well but here it is...I went through every.thing. I can find things I need again, that is nice. It will take a few more days to finish the house and then I can decorate but my self respect will be intact. When the children travel home for Christmas they can look about with the calm confidence that all is right with the world, Mom washed the windows, cleaned her sewing room, and yep...there it is Dad's stuff, not going anywhere.
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