A new leaf

If you know me well you probably know what a struggle it is for me to be organized and keep a clean house (much to the dismay of my husband, MIL, and SIL). Organization is not my strong point in life, but it has never really bothered me enough to change. I am always envious of others' clean houses but lack the motivation to keep my own that way. I used to keep a relatively clean house (with the exception of what is affectionately known as "the crap room"). But then Breah came around and as she grows she gets messier. Sometimes I don't even see the point in cleaning because she messes everything up faster than I can clean. Which is strange because she is so OCD about some things. I guess I am too, and perhaps that's why I just don't do it, because it's never done good enough, so why bother? I wish I was more OCD about the appearance of my house, rather than stupid things that no one ever sees. Like the way my undies are folded in my bedroom dresser (hello, who sees that?) or the dang fitted sheet in the bathroom closet. Oh how I loathe fitted sheets, they are like my own personal nemesis and I despise them with all my heart. Yesterday I wasted 40 minutes of Breah's nap folding and refolding before I finally gave up and moved on to refolding all the towels in the closet. I have my mother to thank for that. She always made us fold our towels in thirds, and now that is the way it must be done, and they all have to line up (don't tell Brandon, he hates it when I refold his work, and I don't ever want him to stop helping with the laundry just because I'm too OCD). My mom used to say that even though there was a lot of clutter (and by clutter I mean toys out of their boxes, shoes strung throughout the house, etc) everything was clean underneath). Well I hope the same is true for me, but I'm finally getting to a point where my house is driving me crazy. So alas, I have discovered Flylady in hopes of gaining control of this chaos (if I can't clean up after one how will I ever have more kids?). Today I started with shining my sink, and I must say it looks good! If anyone else has any cures for my disease let me know!

I must not neglect my house completely though because Breah has really taken an interest in cleaning herself. The only problem being that her cleaning usually entails making a bigger mess. She is obsessed with the wipes (I can no longer keep them within reach) and will pull them all out and wash the walls, floor, toys, shoes, etc, all the while leaving a trail of wipes behind her. She's a big helper and puts things in the garbage all day long...only about 1/2 of it actually belongs there so I end up digging things out. Today while I was in the shower she was blowing her nose and throwing the tissues away (she can reach on top of the toilet now) and noticed a light bulb. She must have thought that got in there by mistake so she digs it out and brings it to me. I told her it was garbage and to take it back, but on her way she dropped it on the tile! She's barefoot, and I'm barefoot and couldn't get to my towel, so I had to use Brandon's already wet towel to get out and get dressed so I could clean it up before she slices her little foot open! She loves laundry day! Whenever I'm doing laundry she opens her bottom 3 drawers and drags out all her clothes and throws them in the basket I'm emptying. Then when I move things to the dryer, she's at it again, after I already put them away once. Today I had washed one of Brandon's shirts with her clothes, but she didn't approve of it being in the dryer with hers and had to take it out. She's exhausting but sure makes my day more interesting! The other day I was babysitting, and when the mom came she (the mom) was putting some toys away. Little did she know she was putting the wrong toys in the wrong basket! Breah was quick to correct her (sorry!), but yet she won't pick up the toys when she's done playing with them! But I've sat here long enough, I must attend to some chores now!