Clean

Once school starts, it is hard for me to find time for any cleaning beyond the daily maintenance needed to keep things running around here. The washing machine never seems to stop, and neither does the dishwasher. But when it comes to things like dusting and organizing drawers, I find it hard to keep up.

My mother-in-law is here for an extended stay this winter and she and I decided to tackle the beast during our last week of winter break. She’s been washing walls, woodwork and windows while I’ve been cleaning out closets, knocking down cobwebs and dusting ceiling fans and furniture.

One day we kicked up so much dust around here that three fire alarms kept tripping all day, blaring a “combustible materials” warning! My husband has been teasing me that I turned the house into a grain silo by disturbing the dusty status quo.

But now it is done. The whole house looks clean, all at the same time! I had forgotten what that looked like, and what it felt like.

I often feel overwhelmed during the school year with the magnitude of tasks that are being left undone, with no time or energy at the end of the day to tackle them. For me, this is the hardest part of homeschooling. It’s not the kids or the lesson planning that gets to me. It’s the feeling that I’m never quite on top of the housework that leaves me frustrated at the end of a long day.

But this week, our first week back to school, has been very peaceful. I feel rather caught up, for the first time in….well, a very long time. It feels good!