A cleaning fit at our house means...

...company's coming

...mom's cranky

...mom has something she should be doing but she's avoiding it

...we've just come back from visiting someone else and Mom realizes what a state our house is

...mom's been reading blog posts about other people working on cleaning and she's feeling guilty


Got this idea from Dana's post, and she got the idea from Sylvia's post, who was inspired by Dawn's post. I changed it up a bit though because I wanted to ask like one of the commentors on Dana's post "What is this clean of which you speak?". Loved that comment! I sometimes go into short cleaning fits but seldom, if ever, does one last long even to actually end up with a clean house. :0)

Dawn's post is a wonderful, inspiring post and I really wish I could have her great attitude, but when I read her statement "We don't clean up messes to have a clean house. We clean up messes so there is room for more mess!" I just can't seem to take the next step with her and "think of cleaning up after my kids as replacing a canvas". I wish I could, but I can't. My response is, "Why clean it up if it's only going to get messy again." Sad, I know. I was really, really inspired by Dawn's post, until Dana's and Sylvia's post revived the real me.

I have to share a funny that happened while I was typing this post. I originally titled it "A cleaning frenzy at our house means..." until I looked in the dictionary to double check the spelling of "frenzy" and I discovered that it means "wild excitement", and I just couldn't bring myself to use it because cleaning does not excite me at all. I decided to try "spree" as a replacement, until I discovered that it means "a noisy frolic", and decided that wasn't right either. It may get noisy when I clean, but it's not fun and I associate frolic with fun. So I decided to try "fit" as a replacement. "any sudden, uncontrollable attack; an outburst, as of anger; in an irregular way". Yep, that's the right word. :)

"Whereever you are, be all there"

Anne included the quote "Whereever you are, be all there", by Jim Elliot in her amazing post today, How to Practice Being Present to the Presence of God, and it jumped at me. You need to go read her post because it goes in a different direction than I'm going here and it is so inspiring. Don't miss it.

Anyway, the quote itself reminded me of the two blog posts that I referred to in my Become involved with the kids and have fun post from yesterday. I kind of get the idea that God is sending me many differently worded, but same meaning, messages.

This year has been different. DD, almost 16, is my only "official student" and, while I started the year all excited about the fun we were going to have together, it hasn't been as much fun as I thought it would be. I'm realizing, however, that I'm probably to blame for this. I was not as present with her in her studies as I could have been. Instead of my dream of us enjoying our time together she ended up spending much of her time holed up in her room working on her own, with me checking in once in a while to see how things were going.

Off and on throughout the year I would realize that I needed to be more present for her and I would work on doing that for a while, but I soon forgot as I got caught up with other things. The posts the last couple of days have been a great reminder for me and the last two days have been some of the most fun of the year. We worked, talked, and laughed together. It was great. I hope I don't forget again soon.