Are you ready for this? I know I am.

I’m determined to write this post quickly before I head to the doctor for the second time with a kid who has the strangest, won’t-go-away rash.

But I also want to clarify and justify and explain and all that, because what I’m about to tell you could be a little controversial for this particular site.

I scheduled something. Something awesome. Something that makes my heart swell with excitement and makes me smile every time I think about it.

Something that also took a huge burden of stress off of my shoulders the minute I made the appointment.

Want to know what I’m talking about? Well, before I share, let me do a little more concrete justifying.

• I’ve been very open that this was a goal of mine.
• I’ve been very clear how I feel about this particular subject and the strange American resistance to it by people like me who feel we should be able to handle all things at all times.
• I warned you all, a full year ago, that I was planning to do this.
• I understand, both from personal experience and reality-check guest posts, that this won’t eradicate my slob problem.
• I’ve thought a LOT over the last year about how my frugality can, at times, be detrimental.

If you’ve been around a while, you probably know what I’m talking about. If you’re new, please check out those links in the list directly above to fully understand that this isn’t a lightly made decision.

And most of all, you know I’m going to blog all about this and give you a reality-based perspective.

Ready? I hired someone to clean my house. She comes Thursday.

Did you hear a choir singing hallelujah, or is that just in my head??

So what’s the reality based perspective I have to give at this point?

Well, reality is that time and energy are finite. And I’m having a group of people over Friday night. And this week, I’m recording my audiobook two days (in a studio more than an hour away), promotion videos (with a real crew and everything) one day, and I start back to Bible Study on another day. Today was the only day I’d be home, and now with the surprise doctor appointment, even that day is gone.

Not that I feel like I need all that craziness to justify hiring someone, but it prompted me to get busy and get it done.

And reality is that my Crazy Eyes softened to Slightly Overwhelmed Eyes the minute I received confirmation the cleaner was coming.

The details so far:

I stressed over finding someone. How to find someone? I live in a mostly-offline area and googling isn’t really an option. I felt funny asking local friends on facebook because of the whole normal stigma plus the stigma of me being a Slob Blogger, and the worry that someone would offer to do it whom I knew. I wanted a little anonymity. I racked my brain, trying to imagine which friends had cleaners, but feeling funny asking people randomly “Do you have someone clean your house?”

I texted a friend who had raved about her cleaner, but who had said she thought hers wasn’t taking new clients. I thought maybe her cleaner could recommend someone if she couldn’t do it. Thankfully, she had a spot open for me.

I’ve been cleaning ever since I set up the appointment. Post-summer clutter and book-releasing craziness is still a problem around here. I am determined to get the house to a point where she can just come in and deep clean, so that means surfaces must be cleared, floors cleared, clutter piles removed, etc.

I didn’t tell the kids. I just told them to clean their rooms.

I could share more of my thoughts behind this, and I will, but now I need to get ready to head to the doctor.

 

 

--Nony