Why isn't the house spotless yet?

No, this is not really my house...

 Some collateral damage from deciding to make the leap from employed to self employed has been the unfortunate layoff of Darlene, my cleaning lady. Darlene was a great lady (and since she was short) I forgave her for not dusting the tops of my dressers...and other minuscule oversights in the cleaning process. Generally when I arrived home on alternate Mondays, things looked shiny and the whole house had an aura of cleanliness that I did not have to create. I hated to see Darlene go, but I really couldn't justify keeping a cleaning lady when I was going to be here on a consistent basis. So....goodbye Darlene. I will miss you and your little old lady shoes sitting at my front door.


Since the Darlene era has ended, I have cleaned a few closets (not mine), re-organized the linen closet and spot cleaned some of the carpets.  I repaired a broken pantry shelf (yes, me!) and attempted to re-plant some potted perennials (this was a failure, but A for effort!) I am highly mo-TI-vated. After scrubbing my own toilets, I decided my children (particularly my son) needed a lesson in how to clean bathrooms. Perhaps this will inspire better aim and management of misfires in the future, methinks.


I was being chipper "let's learn some life lessons" Mom, showing them the *super fun* process of top to bottom latrine duty. Strangely enough, they LIKE it. They teamed up and shined the place up, worthy of their German lineage. I thought the novelty would wear off, but again today they divvied up the bathrooms and took turns scrubbing. They're weird.




When they clean, these kids take it very seriously.