Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Triumphant Tuesday


Okay, it's a sickness. I was gone for almost 48 hours, no sleep, no food, my feet throbbing from the pains of vanity in the form of wearing shoes a size too small, and I was greasy and fading fast. And what did I do when I came in, barely strong enough to push the door open? I opened the dryer, pulled the clothes out, rotated what was in the wash, emptied the waste basket, swept the floor, went to see what the filth fairies had done to my kitchen. No, I don't mean my family, I mean the dust and grime that sets in when we're not looking. This led to loading the five dishes, wiping down the kitchen, sweeping, making the crap on the counter symmetrical, etc., all with purse still in hand. Then I set about to fold all the throw blankets before I could even entertain the idea of collapsing into hundreds of hours of sleep. (Which translated into one hour because I got a phone call.) So yeah, maintenance as an extreme sport maybe? I'd take the gold, except gold sucks, silver is superior, but is associated with second place, which just won't do. Okay so it's probably best that maintenance isn't a sport because god help me if I ever had a day on which I won the bronze.

Quinn asked me to wake him at 7:30 to watch some special Dr. Who (thanks Deborah), but alas, I was awakened at 5-something by a phone call. I'm telling you, the sky is falling Chicken Little, but that's another blog.

So by the light of the freaking moon, I:

-Made all beds.

-Wiped the kitchen.

-Swept the floor.

-Swept laundry room floor.

-Did all the laundry.

-Petted my quilt that Todd insensitively hung to dry on cold, unfeeling lawn chairs last night, whereas I would have praised and massaged it dry.

-Made protein shake, took meds.

-Bleached the kitchen sink.

-Decided to bleach all the sinks and the tub.

-Arranged garbage and recycling into alignment.

-Scoured kitchen garbage can inside and out.

-Made copious lists.

MY HOPES AND DREAMS FOR THE TWELVE SECONDS DURING WHICH I'LL BE HOME TODAY:

-Follow through with bleaching remaining sinks/tub.

-Fold all the laundry.

-Tackle one kitchen drawer (did one the other day, damn that feels good).

-Have Quinn vacuum.

-Rappel into our lower chip/pasta/Top Ramen/garbage bags/straws/protein shake mix cupboard and sic my OCD on it. It's scarier than a haunted house, and no one upholds my systems once I create them. Oooh, I see organizers in my future. Yea!

-Have Quinn and Reilly give their room a once-over.

-Yeah, I'll be happy if these things get done. Well, happier. Little things like cleaning off my suede ottomans with a lint roller rarely make the list because I don't even think about it.

SO MOXLINGS, PICK SOMETHING OFF MY LIST OR CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

-D&L.

-Pull all the cusions off your couch/love seat and wipe or vacuum all the French fries, broken crayons, pennies, and whatever else has made its way in there. Really. Do this. May as well pull said couches out and vacuum behind them too. Just sayin.

-Wipe down your tv/dvd/game system area. I advise spraying the Windex (or green solution) onto the paper towel (or cloth you've knitted), and then wiping the screen, as opposed to spraying directly onto the tv. Wipe down all dust, lift up the dvd player, game system(s), wipe top and back of tv, cords if you can reach, the hutch, the whole shebang. For those with crayon graffiti, fingernails work well, as demonstrated by Emily yesterday.

-Cob web check. Whole house.

-Time for all towels and bath mats to take a trip through the washer. Sweep bathroom floor(s). Wipe down sinks and toilets.

-Put those kids to work. Make them pick up stuff off the floor.

-Clean your sliding glass door if you have one.

-Give your kitchen cupboards a wipe, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc.

-Empty all waste baskets.

-Finito!

I want some proud posts!

12 comments:

  1. you've got me on the sliding glass door, i think i'll be sure to tackle that one today. still getting windows installed which means extra dust messes to contend with. also doing some laundry in preparation of our guest's arrival. will do more tomorrow and thursday when i can really make some progress. got the kids to clean their toy area, so nice to see.

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  2. Gail-I've only got you on the sliding glass door because I don't have one, lol. But in fairness, our entire house is windows.

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  3. I am feeling slightly less like cat barf than yesterday so I'm up for managing the havoc wrecked yesterday. Am going to take your dust challenge and cushion challenge. Dishes. Laundry. Pick up all the random items the toddler dragged out.

    Can I ask how you bleach your tub and sink? Is it more the drains that you are bleaching? I'd love to get our sinks more spiffy. Also, it is an example of your bad influence that I am seriously lusting over the idea of a steam cleaner with all the little attachments.

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  4. Bethany-Cat barf, lol! Um, I can't see the drains so I don't give a shit about them. I stop the sinks, run hot water and a lot of bleach pretty close to the top, let it sit for up to an hour, then use tongs to pull up the flap/seal (featured in a previous post). Then I drain, scrub the filmy feeling off, and cry at the sheer beauty of what I have done.

    For the tub, I scrub it out a bit with (concoction of your choice), because bleach whitens but does not clean, and then it's the same as the sinks. Use the stopper, fill with hot water (which runs low because of the sinks and all the laudry and your shower will be cold that day) and lots of bleach, 45 mins-to-an-hour, lift seal, and behold. Yeah baby, that's what I'm talkin' about. I make no apologies for bleach. Works great on linoleum too if you're up for hands and knees.

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  5. you are CRAZY! I love it. it makes me feel like a jerk if i don't clean because you can literally run on empty and still kick ass.

    um. i haven't done anything yet, but today i WILL:
    mop every inch of this house
    fifteen loads of laundry
    de-clutter my desk
    vacuum my car
    bathe a toddler
    look at a billion houses
    bleach my tub and sink
    and maybe eat somewhere in there

    my husband will be cleaning the garage and attic to death and cleaning sorrens room. sucks to be him!

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  6. So I just wanted to say that I think that every day that you keep getting up to make that protein shake for yourself you are totally kicking ass. If I was able to accomplish that one thing, I would probably be better off. I know you don't think you do a lot for self care, but I find your daily protein shake rather impressive!

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  7. Debe-I love making you feel like a jerk! Lol. Your list made me want to make you a tiara but alas, I hate crafts that involve glitter and glue and shit like that, and frankly, ones in which the tiara isn't for me, but suffice it to say, colour me impressed. :) Also running on empty isn't all it's cracked up to be and it's usually my own ass that gets kicked the hardest.

    Karinda-I strangely wanted to cry reading your post. I'm not a vegetarian but I am one picky bitch about meat and since god doesn't love me enough to have bacon greeting me on a platter every morning, I drink the shakes, for the protein, but also out of routine, and as a chaser for my cocktail of you-know-whats. Self care is something I'm working on, like, today, so maybe that's why it made me emotional. Thank you for your kind words, I hope you're feeling good, it was great seeing you all glowy Saturday.

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  8. Well, I didn't do anything around the house, but I ran a bunch of errands and built the coop for my chickens. Productive, but not at home. So there. :-P

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  9. Laundry: put away diaper load, ran and dried a clothes load.

    Dishes: TWO LOADS!!! I'm a freak of nature today.

    Also: cleared the dining room table, tossed a bunch of inedible bread, made lunch and dinner for us + guests, and blueberry muffins for dessert. Dishwasher load #2 included dinner and baking cleanup.

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  10. as usual i am a day ahead posting... Yesterday i spent the day in town shopping for maurice and managed to get myself a thing or two (only two i swear!) willow and i had fun and most of my afternoon was spent but hey you have to blow a day in town sometimes! Today i have: *vaccumed and mopped and had to fight the puppy for my mop every 2 seconds as she kept shouting "danger! Ill save you!" ... I wasnt half as impressed as she was with herself
    *moved the sofa out to see what horrors lurked under there. Apparently a few science projects.
    *colored my hair
    Now trying to motivate myself to go pay a bill. Those council people are relentless. And yes of course i got the puppy sicky smell out of my car. You can rest well! X

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  11. Wendy-Errands are vital and I'd rather die than attempt to build a chicken coop, so thumbs up for you!

    Katie-Sounds like you nailed the basics, and I'm loving clean dining room tables, blueberry muffins, and CLEANING UP AFTER! Outstanding!

    Mesina-You could type, "I fancied myself a day of sitting on my arse laughing at you stupid Americans," and I would laugh and applaud. Okay I must know what you bought for Maurice and for yourself. Vacuuming and mopping = good, puppies = bad, but sounds like you're showing yours who's boss. What colour is your hair? I hate paying bills, even if they're sitting on the counter all stamped and ready. Thank you for assuring me about the puppy smell, I was sure I could smell it. Can't wait to hear what charming things you're up to today.

    Great job everyone.

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  12. I kicked kitchen ass last night. Unfortunately it came back for another round by morning. I also got a lot of garden work done and spent a good chunk of the day at Carm's so she could get her chiropractic home visit. I feel like it was a successful day.

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