Fast forward about 18 years.....
I was staying at my parents' house for the weekend with my 4 kids last month. My mom and I were reading through some conversation starter questions and one of the questions was, "What is one thing you'd like to change about yourself that will probably never change?"
My answer: "I'd like to not be so messy, but I've always been messy, so I don't think that will change." There. I said it. In that one sentence I admitted that I just MIGHT be domestically challenged.
Try as I might, I always have a mess. I can get it cleaned up, and then a few days later it mysteriously shows up again! I could blame it on the kids, but honestly, our house was messy before the kids came along. It is going to take a huge transformation and change of habits to get this out of me.
About a year ago, after we had added a toddler to the family, my house was messier and more disorganized than normal. It was Sunday morning, and my husband couldn't find his shoes when he was heading out the door for church, so he had to throw on some fake leather clog-type shoes. Then, he felt that it was necessary to point his shoes out to the congregation during his sermon, mentioning that our house was a little under par. This prompted a kind woman in the congregation to offer to come over and help me clean my house. Humbled, and grateful, I accepted her offer.
She told me the story of when she had young children and didn't even answer the door because her house was unpresentable. Thankfully, her experience helped her to understand the place that many mothers are in. So, when she walked into my home with messy counters, and floors that hadn't been washed for who knows how long, she didn't judge. She understood. (Mental note: Be like that in 20 years!)
She also asked me if she had ever shown me her notecard system of keeping house. I answered no, but wasn't quite at the place where I was ready to take on something new.
Fast forward a year, and I've asked, I have the book, I've asked her wisdom, and I'm implementing this system in my home. I havent perfected it yet, so if you stopped by right now as I type this, you'd still see a mess in my house, BUT.....
My dishes are clean, which by my standards makes my kitchen pretty presentable!
My bathroom floors were washed before 9:00 this morning. History in the making.
The iron stains have been scrubbed from the inside of the shower stall.
All the laundry is done.....not folded and put away, but done!
Every bed in house is made.
And I even took a shower this morning!
To some of you this might seem common-place, but for me this is progress!
Maybe I'll go from domestically challenged to domestically able after all!
(More on the system later. I might be able to write a few posts on this!)
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