Erin's prayers are answered seven years too late

First time doing laundry on my own after Baby Z was born.
Baby in the bjorn; laundry in the stroller.

I've never been a slob, but I've never been a neat freak either (except maybe when there were finals to procrastinate). When I was working, Yancy and I kept the house (pretty) clean and (mostly) tidy.

Now that I am a homemaker, the mess bothers me so much more and the cleaning brings me so much more satisfaction because I'm staring at it all day long.

I love having my bed made. I hate having dishes in the sink. I love storage bins and neatly folded stacks of clean towels. Do these things always happen? Nope. I'm not my mom yet, but I'm getting closer.

Occasionally I have to remind myself that Yancy has not had the same perspective shift, and it's not fair for me to unilaterally change the standards that we developed together over the past couple years. He is not going to care as much as I do about keeping the house clean for the same reason I didn't care this much last June. And that's fine, especially when he notices and appreciates the work I'm doing.

As a reward for reading this post, I offer you a cleaning tip I read on Amy's blog that I've found to be golden the past few months. All her suggestions are good, but number six is my favorite.

Schedule regular chores and be spontaneous for deep cleaning

To prevent chore pile-ups, schedule a few regular chores every day. On Mondays, vacuum upstairs and clean the glass. Tuesdays are for dusting and mopping. Each day has its special chores. These regular tasks take such little time that you can complete them without much hassle. Scheduling baseboard scrubbings, on the other hand, can make for a depressing every-other-Monday. Plus, you might not have time for the task on that day. But if during a regular mopping you get motivated and scrub the baseboards, now that's something to be proud of! Deep cleaning is much more satisfying if done on the fly. 

Following this advice motivated me to clean our living room levelor blinds, which were installed by the previous tenants. You know a cleaning is over due anytime you discover something you thought was beige is actually white.

Six Months

Last week, I woke up with that awful feeling that I'd overslept -- the room was just too light -- and had the following conversation with my groggy self.

I need to be somewhere. Where do I need to be?

[Brain turning over like an old car, lots of racket but no ignition.]

Class. I need to be in class. Which class?High school . . . ? No, I remember graduating high school.* College . . . ? No, wait, I think I remember graduating from college too.

[Struggling.]

If it's not class, it must be work. Where do I work? [Blank.] Oh man, where do I work? . . . Hold on, I don't have a job.

No job? What?!? [Panic]


Wait. . . that's on purpose. I have a baby. 

Six months ago today Baby Z was born, bringing the most drastic, permanent change I've ever experienced. So, to appreciate every moment, I am going to try to post one observation each day this week about how my life is different.

First Observation: Regularity**
One awesome perk about being at home is that when nature calls, I never have to send her to voice mail.

No more heading to the ladies room with my fingers crossed that it's empty. No more wishing the person doing her makeup would find another mirror. No more sneaking into that bathroom on another floor where no one knows me.

It's my bathroom, I clean it, and I use it whenever I feel like it. Awesome.



* I thank heaven often that high school is over forever.
** Miya, I hope this doesn't qualify me for unfriending!

Can I blame this on offshoring?

I shipped a gift from Amazon to Yancy's sister who lives in Moscow, Idaho, but accidentally set my office as the ship-to location. Amazon's customer service rep changed the address for me without any hassle and I was impressed with the ease of the online chat help.

Until I logged in to check the order and found the price had gone up by $80 of international shipping.

I think the customer service rep must have thought that "Moscow, ID 83843" meant an ID number for a place in Moscow, rather than Idaho. Oops!



*And the title of the next post will not be a question. Promise.

Junior High, Anyone?

Last Saturday, I flipped over the chairs as part of cleaning and noticed someone had put their gum under the seat.


Who does that?

List of possible culprits: anyone who has ever visited our apartment. Yes, we suspect ALL of you.

The Count of Monte Who?

If you've read The Count of Monte Cristo (seeing the barely one-proof movie version does not count), you know almost every main character changes their name at least once. It's the 19th century version of all the mask pulling in Mission Impossible 2.

Yancy's coping mechanism:
Spoiler alert!