It’s been one of those weeks. One of those like we all have. My house has been toward the bottom of the priority list.
On Monday, I got all of our laundry done. On Tuesday, I cleaned the bathrooms quickly since there was a school assembly to attend and a little boy to pick up for lunch on his “liquid diet” day. On Wednesday, we spent most of the day at the hospital. Yesterday was appointments all day long, and today we had another school assembly, basic necessity grocery shopping and friends over for the day.
And then, there’s the kitchen sink. No, that’s not a symbolic reference, it’s really the kitchen sink. My husband has changed the doo-lally in the faucet probably 10 times in the four years we’ve lived here. It does fine for a while, and then after a while, starts leaking again. Lately, it’s been really bad. So, we’ve been turning off the hot water at night, in an effort to conserve a little water and not drive us batty. Yesterday, I was trying to catch up on dishes, which I’ve been doing okay with this week but I was completely off my run-at-night-empty-in-the-morning rhythm.
Did you know that the dishwasher runs only on the hotwater side of the faucet? Did you know that if the hot water is turned off, it’ll do the run, but with no water. If you can’t believe someone would be so scatterbrained to not realize that the hot water was turned off, or that there should probably be the sound of water swooshing around while the washer was going, you probably haven’t ever read my blog before. Give me stress and exhaustion and my scatter-brain-ed-ness increases quite a bit.
So I ran it again last night, emptied it this morning, and then (here’s where I start laughing as I talk) my sweet hubby took the handle off of the faucet to take to the plumbing place to be sure he got the correct part to fix it (laughing a little more now). And so I can’t even use my sink because if you turn on the cold water, it for some reason spews out of the hole where the hot water handle was (laughing hysterically now).
Now, as I tell this story, picture the crazy look in my eyes that kind of scares you a little. I mean, really, it’s like taking an alcoholic on a tour of the wine country where there’s free samples at every stop. Excuses galore!!!
I can find excuses on a week when everything is smooth sailing, but give me a week like this, and I can go days without ever even considering washing a dish. I can go until there isn’t a single clean dish in the house. But even though things have been crazy, I’ve been doing the basics, the things that are actually becoming habits. The dishes, although not in the right rhythm, have been done. I even put them in the dishwasher today . . . . without RINSING of course!
This morning as I had just a few minutes before our friends arrived, I swept the kitchen and picked up some dirty clothes and wiped down the kitchen table (wetting the rag in the bathroom sink).
And although it has been a crazy week, my house isn’t a complete wreck. It’s far from perfect, but for me, it’s pretty good.
Maybe one day I’ll be one of those people who cleans when they’re stressed.
I doubt it, but maybe.
Been there, done that. I can go along at a decent clip but once there is something "different" going on that week (and it doesn't have to be much, believe me!), it can fall apart very, very easily.
I hope everything is okay with your son. I'll keep him in my prayers.
I feel ya! I occasionally stress-clean, but more often than not, it's more of a stress induced cleaning avoidance. Your blog (and my very stressed husband) have been a real encouragement for me to keep on top of my house work. Keep posting, and good for you for getting things done, even if it's slightly off routine!
The good news is that we get to start all over next week… Not only am I not one of those people who clean when stressed, I am also not one of those people who "forgets" to eat. Ah, well.
It sounds like you're handling the stress well. This is a fine time to pull out those paper plates 😉
Enjoyed reading your entry. Well written…gave me the giggles. 😉
The only time I ever remember cleaning as stress relief was in college during finals week. Any excuse to get a break from studying without feeling guilty. On the plus side, it was nice to have a clean apartment for the start of vacation.
I also used to find cleaning to be an absolute necessity when I was in college and had to write a term paper. Suddenly, it was absolutely vital that I scrub the kitchen counters, for instance, something I rarely felt the need to do more than slap at because in vague “future time,” I would thoroughly clean my apartment. Uh-huh. I eventually figured that ideas were probably percolating in the back of my mind while the now critical tasks were accomplished, and would finally sit down and bang out the paper. When the semester was done and time was freed up to actually clean? Well, no, not happening. I had been doing school work (or counter cleaning, lol) in overtime. It would be completely unfair not to go out and socialize and have a good time to make up for the deficit of fun built up in the last few weeks.of that semester!