A Clean House

My house is clean.

There is a difference between clean and tidy. I usually have a tidy house, but I don't always have a clean house. From the encouragement of many wiser women who have older children, I have tried to embrace the wisdom that time spent with my children is more important than clean baseboards. (I reaaaallly like clean baseboards.) However, since the "nasty" (aka red tinged dust) was taking over, I took the morning off and cleaned house. Jamie and Betsy were at the pumpkin patch, and Jack and Porter were at school. I had the IPod cranked (choir songs to Contemporary Christian to Biance), and I was a machine! YES!...my house is clean.

Several things crossed my mind while I was cleaning (you know because women are spaghetti and our minds can do more than one thing at a time unlike men who are like waffles...only in one box at a time: resource): (Thoughts in order...)

1. When do stay-at-home moms/dads clean?! (I had to take the day off from work!)
2. How long would it take me to actually clean the entire house? (I worked steady from 8:30 - 11. I did the bathrooms earlier in the week, and the upstairs playroom and bathroom are still untouched.)
3. I have never taken a day off to "veg" or go to the spa, etc...what's wrong with me?
4. I think I know why my kids don't "veg" as needed.

This last observation stems from those times when I take my kids to an event or church, and they simply can't sit still. I watch other kids sit still. What's wrong with mine? We discipline them. So, what's up? My thought today is that I haven't trained them to sit still. I didn't use the Bumbo seat as often as I thought I would. I have never used the Pack N Play for anything other than a bed on a trip. We don't know what Noggin is. At home they don't watch TV other than a little a.m. Disney and the random "movie" which surprise, Betsy and Jack can't sit through. Instead, I have fussed at my kids for bothering me or carted around the little one while I tried to be productive.... So today....I had that ohhhhhh...moment. I'm rarely still. Why should I expect my children to be still? (I'm sure there is some correlation with the constant chatter as well, but I'm going to deny that.) So...I'm raising smart, bossy, active girls. Urgh.

Psalm 46:10 encourages us to "be still and know that I am God." I'm thinking it's time I should work on that. (Now that my house is clean, I'm ok with that.) God knows I need a lot of work.