Things got back on track pretty well this week. Not perfect, but better.
And then there’s my desk. As I’ve been sitting here typing about working on noticing clutter in the house before it gets out of hand, my desk was gradually getting like this:
Now I do have the excuse that my 3 year old has been obsessed with “playing Christmas” for the past week. She brings me all sorts of presents with “pretend Christmas paper” to unwrap. She brought me quite a few while I was on the computer one day. One day that was several days before this picture was taken. I just looked down and realized it had all been there for a while. I should have been clued in when I didn’t have a place to put the keyboard.
I guess the good news on that one is that in my pre-blog days, I wouldn’t have noticed for, let’s just say, a LOT longer.
And then the biggest accomplishment for the week has to do with a personal goal I made for myself this year. It’s too easy to get caught up doing your own thing and not reach out to people. I have to make a conscious effort to have people over. My daughter LOVES to have friends come play, but it’s me that has to make the effort. Especially for that first invite, when you really also need to invite the mom so she can see that we’re not (totally) crazy people and it’s okay to let her daughter come over.
So I invited someone (whom I barely know) over for yesterday. At the last moment, she wasn’t able to come, but thought she probably could come today. It’s harder for me to be motivated by “probably cans” than by “here we comes.” So I didn’t know for sure that she was coming until an hour and a half before she came. In that hour and a half, I leisurely made some soup for our lunch, an awesome Spinach Meatball Soup recipe that I’d never made before. I leisurely picked up around the house, checked the bathroom for a flushed toilet, took a shower, got dressed, and then sat on the couch waiting for them to arrive. Rewind to a year ago, and I would have been frantically running around the house, opening canned soup, and vowing to never ever invite anyone over again. Ever.
Daily tasks, I love you.
Oh, what a great reward for your diligent efforts this week! Well done 🙂
One realization I have had this week is that what it takes to have a tidy home and a clean kitchen is being in CONSTANT motion. I feel as though it's little bitty things, but I am doing them constantly throughout the day. I guess when you have little kids that is just what it is going to be, but dang, it's disheartening!
Good for you. It is a good feeling when your home is prepared for guests even if there are no guests coming. I agree with MJ, it is all about constant motion. I clean all the time, but my home always looks a little disarrayed. My kids can mess faster than I can clean. I am a cleanaholic with one fatal flaw-I was never taught how to keep a home. I NEED a clean home, but often myself spinning my wheels simply because it doesn't come natural to me. They say it takes 90 days to form a habit-keep it up!
I LOVE that you got to relax and make some soup while waiting for your guests. I want to be there! 🙂
I also really like those stacking baskets. Like you, I'm a sucker for a good gadget. But seriously…. I JUST cleaned out my laundry room. I have been looking for about two years now for some sort of stacking storage for the baskets where I put socks. Those would be great!
I'm jealous that you could have guests without panic! I had someone stop by very unexpectedly last spring and my daughter let her in the house and directer her to the kitchen where I was sitting. I was sitting because somehow or other the entire main floor of our house was clean! I had no embarassment at all. Somehow, I think that should be an inspiration to keep it up, but it hasn't worked yet. If I could bottle the feeling I had that day and sell it, I could make a fortune!
Man…nobody EVER seems to come over when my house is clean! But let me go one day without doing the dishes or cleaning up the bathroom and you can be sure somebody will drop by. I know the secret is to keeping the house in ‘guest’ order all the time, but it still bums me out that it always seems to go that way. Oh well.
Reminds me of a sign my mom has in her house: “This house was clean last week. Sorry you missed it.” 🙂
A great soup recipy that I have made for years that everyone loves and has lots of veggies and you don’t realize it…
You can even use your meatballs!
In a pot throw:
6 cups water
2 large cans pureed tomatos
1 pkg crescent or other brand ah jus mix or other beef boulion
2 Tbls oregano
2 Tbls basil
1 chopped onion OR 2 tsp onion powder
4 chopped garlic cloves OR 2 tsp granulated garlic (not salt)
Salt and Pepper
1 large bag of mixed veggies (corn, carrots, limas, peas, gr.beans)
I usually add one more can each of corn and green beans but cut the green beans up to small pieces
2 potatoes cut up in small cubes
1pkg frozen spinach
1/2 of a head of cabbage chopped up fine
1 lb of already browned hamburger (or meatballs.)
You can add any other veggies you want: more carrots, zuchinni, celery, etc.
Broccoli and cauliflower make the soup go bad quicker if you don’t freeze it or eat it quickly but you can add them.
Let it all simmer until everything is done. The secret is having all the veggies chopped up to the size of two kernals of corn. When it is all small, you get everything in each bite and you don’t notice the stuff you don’t like and the textures all mix wonderfully in the mouth. Even my daughter who hates all veggies will eat this soup!
I love hamburger soup! Thanks!
“Daily tasks, I love you.”
I wish I could say that one day 🙂
Still reading my way through but I had to comment. We had a team meeting with several people in from out of town and one evening there was a gap time. I was actually comfortable asking someone to stop over and “meet the cats” and didn’t feel the red to apologize for my house when they walked in!
I really wish I’d had this when raising a family, but can truly say that even after they left and it was just me it has taken a while to get to finally, finally accepting the daily tasks are needed to get my house this way. It is not how my brain works but if (and only if! I’m nowhere NEAR perfect at it!) I actually do the daily chores daily my house stays good..