So, last night, I asked the girls to help me clean up (as I frequently do). For some reason, last night it worked. I was able to wake up to a relatively tidy house. On these rare and wonderful occasions, I feel an enormous sense of freedom. The day is mine. I can do whatever I want with it. The house is already clean. (ish).
Of course, I’m going to do things like grocery shopping, finish painting the little corner of the basement that isn’t done yet, make bread, put away the last load of laundry, exercise, etc. But it FEELS SO GOOD to be able to be productive, as opposed to spending the first half of the day trying to catch up on the mess from yesterday.
I thanked the girls profusely last night for helping. Maybe they’ll do it again.
It’s not that they usually refuse, they get distracted and wander around with this dazed look on their face, like they have no idea what to clean. So I have to tell them every. little. thing. to. do. And if I give them a few things at a time, they’ll inevitably forget most of them, and I have to tell them again…
It’s exhausting. It’s frustrating. And I rarely ever win.
I didn’t get much knitting done yesterday. Just a few rounds of the too-much-pink-and-purple sock while waiting in the lobby for my guitar lesson.
My guitar teacher isn’t particularly dynamic. I don’t get the impression he’ll ever gush or tell me how fantastic I did with anything. Maybe I’m wrong. I liked him, and he does seem to know a lot about music. My homework this week is to try to memorize what chords are in what keys, and their relative minors and their chords. That should make my mom happy. She mentioned relative minors when talking to me about piano.
And I need to work on different strumming patterns, and memorize the weird chords in Possession. Oh, and mute strings in those weird chords… which is strange and uncomfortable. And strum Across the Universe differently, which I thought I did pretty good to begin with.
I guess not.
So I’m excited. I expect to learn a lot. He mentioned something about “getting me organized” in my playing. That sounds like a good thing. And I already have some decent callouses going, so it isn’t overly painful.
Clark is grumpy this morning, so I’m going to get dressed and get us both out of here. That’ll put him in a better mood…. until I strap him in a shopping cart.
Life with an (almost) two year old. Such a joy.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:55 am
It gets better as they get older. I don’t have to direct Kyrin at all…I just have to yell at her to get off of hte computer to get her started 🙂
Guitar sounds like fun. Kyrin deperately wanted one a few years ago for her birthday and we got it for her…she took lessons for a while but never practiced…now it’s sitting in her closet. So sad.
I hear you about the 2 year olds. Riley isn’t too bad in the store just as long as we aren’t in there for too long. He has limits ya know 🙂
January 30th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
it is usually miss on the cleaning department at our house too. that dazed look is a perfect way to describe that look!
January 31st, 2008 at 8:51 am
So it sounds like you need the ‘house fairy’!!! (housefairy.org) Ask Christine – she says Kate has made her bed every day for months without any nagging. The other thing that works is to take the children all with you from room to room, and assign them tasks – Billy picks up all the books, Jane puts all thetoys in the toy basket, so and so dusts, Mama sweeps, Betsy drags all the dishes to the kitchen. The important thing is that when you assign someone a task that requires they leave the room you must specify that they return immediately, or they wont. 🙂 We can usuallly go room to room in the living area of the house and spend 5 minutes per room. I’m just signing up with the house fairy today, and I’m hoping that will take care of the bedrooms. How’s that for free advice!
February 1st, 2008 at 9:23 pm
As you can see, Laura, there are several of us who can identify with your housework situation. My kids also had to be told what to do one task at a time for a while. I can say that it has gotten better. I can’t just set them loose on the chores, but I don’t have to stand over them the whole time anymore.