Details, Details

Summer: Day 3

We’re thoroughly enjoying our summer days. We’ve managed to keep the kitchen in pretty decent shape. Again this morning, the boys swept it and wiped down the table and counters.

But still, if someone who didn’t know how bad things can be around here had walked in this morning, clean bathrooms and wiped counters would have gone unnoticed due to laundry all over the living room and the vacuum cleaners blocking the way into the next room.

Monday was laundry day. It was pretty successful. The boys helped with the loading and the changing over and the emptying. But I decided that I would do the folding, in an effort to not have our first day of summer be non-stop laundry.

And I waited until they went to bed.

And I couldn’t put their clothes away while they were in bed because I didn’t want to turn the light on . . . and I couldn’t count the clothes in their drawers in the dark.

I was gonna put it away yesterday morning.

But then, yesterday morning wasn’t quite as long and drawn out as Monday morning. Somehow it flew by, and we had to clean bathrooms.

And I was gonna put it away in the afternoon yesterday, but then I needed to write, right?

And I was gonna put it away after the kids got back from the library program, but then it was time to go swimming.

And I was gonna put it away last night after we got home from the baseball game, but by then, of course, the kids were in bed and I couldn’t turn on the light to count their clothes.

This morning was our planned morning off from major tasks like bathrooms and vacuuming. I let the kids chill in front of the TV, since they haven’t done that much in the past two days, and we’re all pretty tired.

Since everyone was occupied, I naturally began to rationalize that it would be fine to turn on the computer. Even though that goes against my “not until after lunch” rule, I was trying to convince myself that it would be okay.

But then, I made myself look around and see the mess. I put away the laundry, holding to my “8 outfits only” experiment. Then I made myself put away the vacuum cleaner, even though we’re going to use it tomorrow. Once those big things were out of the way, I realized how little effort it would take to pick up the little things . . . and now the living room looks nice. Lived in, but not too embarrassing if someone were to ring the doorbell.

I struggle so much with this balance between day-to-day and big stuff. The feeling of accomplishment and pride that I get when I clean bathrooms or wipe down counters (or direct my children in doing it) can contribute to my selective-slob-vision.

I wonder if I’ll ever get over that selective vision problem.