September 07, 2010

Spinning My Wheels

When I was a pre-teen there was a popular song called "Spinning Wheel." 



For the past week I have been spinning my wheels. You can't be a homemaker, Head of Home Management, CFO of the Homefront or whatever you want to call yourself, without spending some days wondering if you are getting anything done. The key is to get over it and do what you can to get back on track. Nothing, including a home, is perfect all of the time.

The weather is absolutely beautiful here in Iowa. The days have been in the upper 70's and low 80's. The nights have been in the 50's and the weather has finally cooperated so I can be outside and scrape and paint a fence and the house. The problem is that the inside of the house tends to get ignored - meaning it is a mess and also needs cleaned.

How do you get a major project done and still keep up on the regular housework? Well, either you don't sleep all night and work round the clock, you have your family help you (except right now they are equally busy), you let it all go and hope no one drops by or your find the happy medium.

I'm finding a happy medium. Today is cross country meet day which means this afternoon I will be heading out of town to watch my DS run at a meet that my DH also coaches. Since I would only have a morning to be outside working, I have decided that I should instead spend it inside picking up and doing some maintenance cleaning. If I were to let the "downstairs" of our house go another day, there will be big trouble for the rest of the week. I can't find things because of such disorder and it will only make my week worse if I don't tackle it.

I think the surprising thing about this week is that people would look at my being home and make the judgment that my home is always perfectly clean and put together. That would be true if we didn't live in the house.

Working in an office I learned when there was a major project we were working on that we only did whatever else was necessary to keep the office going and focused on the major project. The same is true at home.

So this morning it is a couple loads of laundry, picking up, tidying up the kitchen and bathroom and a quick vacuuming and I should be good to go for the rest of the week.

1 comment:

Maureen said...

I suppose you could look at your project much as you would if it was your job, and give yourself a starting and a finishing time and also breaks, and then you could maybe manage your time a little better. And I agree that a home should look and feel lived in.