The Gifted Housekeeper...(I heard that Mom!)

When I met my husband he and his oldest(our 15 11/12th's son J) lived in an apartment. The first time I went to his place it was semi-clean(I think my mother-in-law had just been there). I thought, hey this guy is amazingly cute, very intelligent AND he keeps a clean house; what a catch!!! As our relationship progressed and L(my mother-in-law)had not come out to visit for awhile, I noticed a little buildup of dishes and a slight odor eminating from the apartment. I thought, hey, he's very busy with his career and raising a son, I'll help him out. So I did. As time went on and we fell in love, the apartment got messier. Okay, he's a guy so maybe he's not the neatest person, but I love him!

When we decided to move in together he swore he would keep our house neat as a pin. Okay, we are on the second house and married and it's still a mess!!! I can't let him take all of the credit, though. I am somewhat handicapped in that area as well. I have really good intentions most of the time, but somehow, it's never quite enough. To give myself some credit, we do have 4 kids, a dog and 2 full time jobs. Two of the kids live with us full-time, but we have the "stuff" of a family of six, and the dog. My husband travels quite a lot so I get to hold the fort down. It isn't the easiest thing in the world to keep the place spotless.

My OTHER excuse is I love spending time with the kids. I could clean the house after work, but that's A's playtime and I don't want to miss a minute of that. I could clean the house after she goes to bed, but then how would I have time to write this crap? I could clean the house on the weekends when we have two full days off, but then I would miss N's soccer, hanging out with B, J, N, A, my hubby and of course, the dog. So, I clean when I can or the house is just too atrocious, or when we have company coming into town. There's plenty of places to hide stuff, there's the trash can and the rest, well it's neatly placed into piles. Laundry gets done when we are out of underwear or are short on cash and can't buy any new ones. The floor gets sweeped when A starts wiping them down with a butt wipe. The yard gets mowed when by negotiating computer time with J. All of the rooms have doors that can be shut and we bought stock in Febreeze.

Laugh, but please give me at least 3 hours before you come for a visit!!!!