Balance

Boy I am so glad the weekend is here, it's felt like a terrifically long week for some reason. I really like Friday's, J calls it "Weekend Eve" and I so get that. It's like a slow burn feeling of excitement simply cos the following day is not a school/work day. 

Since September when the Little People returned to school, I've been gently building some new routines into my home life (you might remember me writing about it here and here). It's been an interesting time for me actually, quite challenging in many ways as I've attempted to alter my deep rooted and rather negative attitude towards the housework. Truthfully it's not been that hard, although it still doesn't come naturally or easily to me.  Take this morning for example. Friday morning is the time each week when I carry out my "Weekly Home Blessing Hour" as instructed by the FlyLady. I've been doing this religiously for the past 6 weeks or so, but every week without fail I find myself trying to wriggle out of doing it. I never, ever actually look forward to doing it (and I SO wish I did!) but at the same time I've learnt to conquer my extremely strong Procrastination Tendency. So when the clock hits 9.30am I force myself to put on my apron and set to. No excuses.

I start upstairs, cleaning the floors, polishing a little in the bedroom, cleaning the bathroom. I then work my way down the stairs, clean the floors, polish a little in the living/dining room and generally straighten things out. Empty bins. Put things away. Plump cushions. Tidy blankets. And I manage to do all this in one hour flat. I move fast (Little B permitting). I try and think Loving Thoughts about my home whilst I'm cleaning.

And when it's all done and the place is clean and relatively together,  I put some flowers on the (clear, clean and polished) table and light a candle for good measure. I sit for a while and allow myself to feel just a teensy bit smug. Give myself a psychological pat on the back. 

This morning I even got out my ripple blanket and attempted a little bit of smug, post-cleaning hooky at the clear/clean/polished table but sadly it wasn't to be. Little B had other ideas and I found myself dancing to his tune for the rest of the morning, which is exactly as it should be of course.

I've gradually come to realise that it's all about balance and patience and creating little windows of time to do everything one wants to do, balanced with everything one has to do or ought to do. Easy really.

Hmmmmm.....I have to admit I do sometimes wish (secretly to myself) that the Crochet Window was very much bigger, and the Pre-school Toddler Window was a tad smaller. One day it will be. One day it'll all balance out. 

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Edit to add :: Little B kind of bobs in and out of my Home Blessing Hour. At times he is right under my feet, right there doing it all with me (alternating feelings of delight and irritation), at other times he wanders off and does his own thing nearby. He usually has a cloth and some bit of the vacuum cleaner to do his own spot of cleaning along side me. He seems to quite enjoy it all, I do try and let him help if he wants to even if it means gritting my teeth whilst he vacuums the floor inch by inch.

 

 

 

 

Comments

[Ursula]

oh, how I know what you mean about your hour of tidying...I'd much rather be hooking than really doing anything else... thank you for the lovely lift. XO Ursula

[Helen]

I'm thinking that I might have to wait until mine are in school too to be able to do that successfully! I try and I try but with the exception of the absolute necessities pretty much everything gets ignored until it is just too direful to ignore any longer!
xXx Helen

[Archie the wonder dog]

Wow, you get a lot done in an hour!! Gorgeous photos and I love the concept of 'weekend eve!'.

[louise]

That sounds great! I'm totally opposite and spend hours and hours cleaning as i am obsessive and dont relax until everywhere is perfectly clean and tidy!! I would love to be more laid back and able to ignore mess but i dont think i ever will...i love the idea of a little hoke blessing ritual when your work is done.

[maypole]

Amazing what you can achieve in an hour, little and often so as not to get bored by it. ((says me who hasn't done a thing all day!)

I always love Fridays, even though we don't work now, it still has that "feeling".

Enjoy the weekend.

[karen]

Good going Lucy, sounds like a whirlwind of work, thank God its not everyday eh!!!!!!
Have a sweet weekend Karen x

[Faith]

Inspired!

[Heather]

The biggest thing I have learnt so far about myself is that I CAN change my thought processes and I CAN change the way I act and feel about things. It's sort of validating to see other people realise this too (like you're changing how you feel about housework), it makes me feel less bonkers.
xxxx

[Katie]

Wow - that's an awful lot in one hour. It's been years since I tried the home-blessing hour - may have to give it another whirl!
What do you do with Little B in this time? Does he follow you around?

[Linda Gilbert]

I actually pretend I am cleaning someone else's house which really gives me the push to do it really carefully!! Crazy I know -- but it works, especially if I put the timer on too!

[Terrie]

I love Friday evenings. The whole weekend laid out ahead. I also understand the wish to WANT to do housework. The only way I get through it is some music and caffine! x

[Helen]

I love the post about tidying, a necessary evil. but more importantly I LOVE the jam jar with the ribbon tied around it! Inspired again thank you xx

[Sue]

You inspire me!! Thank you so much for sharing yourself so unselfishly. Blessings to you and your family.. Sue
http://loveinterwoven.blogspot.com

[Country Rose]

I'm the same and roughly once a week I have to have a real burst of cleaning, it's hard when you have a little person un-doing all of your hard work though. I cleaned the bathroom today, to leave the room for two minutes and I returned to find my 9 month old had completely unravelled the Whole toilet roll... It's very difficult to wind it back up and make it look presentable again! My once lovely nice clean bathroom now has a massive bundle of scrunched up toilet roll on the cistern.. not so tidy-looking!!

Ashley xxx

[My Rosevalley]

Oh dear. How I do recognize myself in your wonderfully written post today. I might pick up on your tips on putting the apron on and just do it. Take an hour and just do it. With some loving thoughts about my home added to it as well. And wow I would feel so great after wards when done. It always feels like climbing Mount Everest to do the cleaning. Maybe not really the cleaning cleaning bit put the tidying... I think my big problem is that the tidy bit is doing my head in. Tidy tidy tidy. It sometimes feels like someone tip toes behind me to make a mess of what I just tidied up... A family of 5 is always a challenge. A challenge I would never ever wanna live without. Bless us for being so lucky. With the big mess, fights, squabbles, tantrums, l♥ve and all. Tahnsk for sharing.
♥♥♥
Annette

[Kashi Griffith]

Well, your home looks lovely, so it must be working. I was just making my to do list for the morning. I am only giving myself an hour to an hour and a half to get this place spiffy for the weekend.

[Robin]

BALANCE, such a great word yet so hard to do. I just keep on trying. Lovely post Lucy. xoRobin❤

[Alison]

I'm afraid I have much the same attitude to housework as you! My children are all at school though- how I miss having little people toddling around and interrupting the chores! Managed to avoid the housework for an hour this morning by attempting to dye some sock yarn in some wonderfully bright colours with Kool Aid- then spent the rest of the day admiring my handiwork so much that nothing really got done afterwards either!!!! Xx

[Jeanmarie]

Thanks to your suggestion, I'm also doing "swish and swipe", "shine your sink" and the weekly blessing (which takes two hours, but it gets the house nice and tidy for the weekend).

I have a playlist entitled "Cleaning" on my iPod. It's mostly fast, upbeat '80s rock EXCEPT for the first song, which is the William Tell Overture (it really gets the duster moving!)

I'm even a geek when I clean!

[Ali]

oh good for you!! I can not bring myself to clean until its jus horrible. I feel theres so so much other stuff i'd like to be doing than cleaning a the moment...

[Teresa Kasner]

What a great idea to have a certain day and time to do your tidying! You have given me some inspiration.. and I'm going to do some tidying now.. and light a candle too.

I'm glad that you're appreciating your little guy while he's young, as soon enough he'll be in school.. then the older ones will head off to college.. and you'll realize these days are your best in your life.

((hugs)), Teresa :-)

[Bethany]

I wonder if putting on the apron helps get into the right mindset? I'll have to try that. I'm excellent at finding reasons to wiggle out of it.

I know exactly what you mean about wishing the pre-school toddler window were smaller and the crochet window bigger!! I have three pre-schoolers right now and sometimes it seems like my yarn window is eeny-teeny-weeny-tiny...as well as the showering window, thinking window, sleeping window...the diaper-changing window is pretty large, though. :) Thanks for the reminder that it will all balance out one day. You're absolutely right.

[Lisa]

Can I have your shoes? They are adorable!

[Cindy]

Hi Lucy,

I have been doing fly lady too. But I've been doing 15 minutes a day, plus Kelly's challenge whenever I can. I don't like the housework thing anymore either but it's because we're cluttered and we're moving. I know this house is mine for a short term. I hope I can get it looking good for Thanksgiving...we're having it here and it's only three weeks away!
Cindy Bee

[Lisa G.]

This is an awfully cute post - you're doing good!!