I have to keep my KITCHEN clean!!!
I know this. If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s how much of a difference it makes in my entire house when the kitchen is under control.
And how much of a (negative) difference it makes when the kitchen is out of control.
Last week I justified letting my house get out of control. Looking back, I don’t know that I could have done things much differently, as I was running crazy.
This week, I’m working to get back under control. But good habits are soooo terribly easy to break!!!
I keep forgetting to run my dishwasher.
My dishwasher that I KNOW has to be run every single night and emptied every single morning if I want to keep my kitchen under control. And I DO want to keep my kitchen under control!
Monday and Tuesday nights, I forgot to start it. I loaded it, but never turned it on. My whole rhythm was messed up. Yesterday, I pulled the old “Surely I don’t have enough dirty dishes to justify running it, so I’ll just leave those cups scattered around the house and wait until tomorrow night to run it so I can get back on my rhythm” trick.
Except that the picture at the top of this post is of my dishwasher right now.
And it’s full.
Of dishes that I loaded into it this morning . . . that I should have put in it last night.
Leaving no room for dishes I dirty for the rest of the day . . . making it impossible for me to get back on rhythm tonight.
Grrr.
And since I didn’t follow my own advice, I ended up spending much more time in there this morning than I should have. Time that I needed to spend cleaning the rest of the house to get ready for our Strawberry Party tomorrow.
Yes, my daughter is having a Strawberry Party tomorrow. Before you label me the World’s Most Fun and Spontaneous Mom for saying “Sure, let’s do that!” to her whim, let me explain.
I might have felt just a little guilty for all the times when I say “No” to her fun four-year-old ideas.
I might have wanted to make up for the fact that I farmed her out every day last week and wanted some special Christmas-memory-making time with her.
I might have been okay with a little external motivation to clean so I wouldn’t put it off until next week when my husband is having his office party here, but when I’ll have absolutely no time.
I’m definitely treasuring these moments with her as I’m starting to feel the daily panic of knowing that the spring will fly by and I’ll no longer have any little ones at home full time, with whom to plan Strawberry Parties.
Ok, now I’m crying.
I am seriously tempted to go wake her up from her much-needed-as-evidenced-by-irrational-crying-where-does-she-get-that nap and make her snuggle with me.
Yes, I’m aware that there is a cup shoved sideways in the top row of the dishwasher. Evidence of my I’ll-deal-with-that-later tendencies.
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