Clean House

I love the show "Clean House". It makes me very grateful that my mother drilled into my head the obsessive urge to clean all the time. This urge is not present all the time like it was in my mom, but it does rear it's ugly head from time to time.

The last time the cleaning bug took over my life was right before I had Joel. I knew that I could go into labor at any time and so my house had to be ready AT ALL times. This is how anal I was: I had a typed out full page, 12 point, Times New Roman, hung in just the bathroom for the kid's bedtime routine. It gave in great detail what toothpaste to use, how much Smart Rinse, all the way down to how to wipe down the toliet seat and to wipe down the mirror. Oh wow I was a very pregnant, very hormonal, on the edge soon-to-be a new mother for the sixth time.

I vacuumed after every meal and I had all the laundry done all the time. If someone as so much dropped a crumb on the floor, oh man I as on it.

Another, not so enjoyable quality was the fact that I was HOT all the time. I wasn't hungry, but HOT. I would get up in the middle of the night and eat at least two or three popsicles and then go back to bed. I had the ceiling fan on high, no covers and the AC set on 68. John said that we could hang meat in the house. Personally, I don't think that it was that bad. But then again, it is probably not normal for kids to sit on the couch wrapped in a blanket when it is 90 degrees outside. Or your husband to ask you to feel his nose because he thinks there is an icicle hanging on it.

Eight months later, I have relaxed a lot. My floor gets vacuumed about once a day, not after every meal. Dishes are not always done at night. Laundry gets backed up once and a while. My bag is no longer packed. And I am grateful that I have Joel here.

As for "Clean House", I will be having a garage sale soon to clear out my "clutter".