I’d Stop to Relax, but Then I Would See the Messy House

How was your weekend?

I decided to spend part of the day Saturday sitting outside feeling the delightful 70° breeze.  Here in Texas we never know when the weather will change so I wanted to enjoy it while it was perfection.  It seemed like such a great idea until a few minutes into my relax time I started looking around on the porch at all of the neglect.  There were cobwebs and bits of trash and I even noticed a random Christmas decoration that had been left behind in the cleanup after the holidays.  It was either go back inside and pretend I didn’t see it or stop relaxing and start cleaning.  I chose the former.  I had already planned to deep clean my bathroom later that day and didn’t feel the need to make any other improvements to my life at the moment.

I was actually looking forward to cleaning my bathroom.  It, too, had been neglected with all of my Summiting and holidays and trips.  I had purchased some Playtex gloves last week for the job because it makes me feel very grown up.  When I was a girl it seemed that all women wore pearls and Playtex gloves when they did their womanly work.  I skipped the pearls, but the gloves just felt right.

I spent almost the entire afternoon chipping away at the dirt and grime until the whole room shone like a new penny.  I didn’t just scrub, I also cleaned out the cabinet and tossed the junk I never used in the garbage and rearranged my essential oils.

I have switched up my oily routine and wanted to have those I am using daily all together in one easily accessible spot, so I did some reorganizing and relocating.  I used two of my little wall shelves for my daily bottles and put my extras in a drawer in alphabetical order.  OCD much?

On Sunday we decided to go worship with some friends in the afternoon and just hang out at home in the morning.  We were chillin’ when there was a knock at the door.  It was a FedEx guy delivering a baby gate I had ordered.  I had no idea those guys worked on Sunday.  It’s kinda sad really.  They need a day off.

But I was excited to get my package.  I had ordered the gate because we have decided to keep our puppy out of the back of the house (someday I’ll write another long post about how I can’t get this dog to stop peeing on my carpet).  We owned a baby gate from the olden days that we had been using to block the hallway, but my daughters and I were having trouble stepping over it.  The boys kept telling us they could get over it just fine and didn’t see what our problem was.  Yeah, wear a skirt and gain a few pounds then talk to me about it.

The final straw came last week when I actually fell trying to climb over it.

I thought about making something that would open easily for us to pass through, but then wondered if maybe they have invented something like that in the 8 years since I shopped for baby accessories.  Lo and behold….they did!  I ordered a gate on Amazon that opens and closes easily….halleluyer!

I gave the FedEx box to the boys and asked them to install it for me.  They grabbed it up, each wanting to get their hands on the new project.  I figured they could handle it so I left them with it and went into my bedroom to do some straightening.  Sounds reasonable, right?  Well after about 20 minutes they came barreling in my room, “Mommy!  Where’s the drill?!”

Me: Um, it’s in the workshop, but WAIT!  Before you go get it, what do you need it for?
Boy 1: We need to drill holes in the wall to put the gate up!
Boy 2: I can’t wait….I have never used a drill before!
Boy 3: We drew big circles on the wall where the holes go like the instructions said!

Uhhhh…….I decided I’d better go check things out before I ended up with giant holes the size of quarters in my walls.

Sure enough, the instructions with no words, only pictures, did seem to suggest drilling holes in the wall.  But upon further inspection we decided that was probably only necessary if the gate wouldn’t stay put on its own.  I suggested they try installing the gate WITHOUT holes, which was an extreme disappointment to them.  It worked.  Crisis averted.

Later that afternoon I decided to surprise James by going through my February receipts and email him what each expense was for.  Usually we go through them at the end of each month and he has to sit there for hours while I torturously try to make my brain remember why I spent $12 at Target on the 4th.  So I sat down and typed it all out and emailed it to him with the subject line, “SURPRISE!”  Later that night he thanked me for the report and said how much he appreciated me doing that.  He said he was only confused by one thing.  After my iTunes purchase of $16.50 I wrote, “Ooops! Sorry.”  “Honey, we don’t have an ooops category.”

All I could say was, “Well we should.  I mean, how does one categorize in-app purchases?”

He didn’t say anything else.  I think I proved my point.

Personally I am feeling pretty good about my semi-productive weekend.  First, no more falling over the hallway gate, my bathroom is shiny clean and I cut my monthly budget meeting time in half.  And all without creating holes in my walls.  I even got a nice nap on Sunday.  It was so great I might even go clean up the front porch now.

I hope you had an equally terrific weekend.  Come on over to Facebook and let me know what you did!