Cleaning and Bunnies

So I’ve been struggling a little lately in my housewife role. I’ve always loved having a clean house and from a young age, my mom made me do my part in the cleaning. Like scrubbing toilets, dusting and vacuuming. Not just picking up or making my bed (which, by the way, she never made me do) So, cleaning is something I’m used to and really don’t mind much doing. However…… lately I feel like I work so hard to clean and pick up and organize only to have it back to a pig sty the next day. It takes me 2 days to clean the house with 2 kids, sometimes longer, and I’m not the type of person that can do just 1 little thing each day. I like to do everything at once and have it all clean at the same time. And I do this every other week. Maybe I just need to lower my expectations and realize that I have 2 kids 2 and under and that it’s just not realistic to have a clean, mess-free house. I mean I don’t expect it to be perfect, but I’d just like to be able to see the floor in the living room every now and then.

We’ve talked about getting a cleaning lady, but I just can’t bring myself to spend the money. I stay at home and feel like that’s part of my job description. I know that this really isn’t that big of a deal, but it’s been a major source of frustration for me lately. I also know that this is just a season and that I need to enjoy the messes my kids make now, because they will be much worse when Fischer is playing sports and leaving sweaty socks and jock straps on the floor.

I just feel like I spend so much time and energy cleaning. It’s wearing me out! I wouldn’t trade it for anything though, and I know that is just comes with the territory. Hopefully I can find a peace in the messiness and figure out a cleaning system that keeps me sane. I want my kids to enjoy their childhood and not worry about making Mom made when they make a mess.

In other news, Matt has taken this week off to do some work around the house. It’s been awesome having him home and he just told me he realizes how much I do during the day and that he’s glad he’s not here. Haha. That might also be part of why I’ve been stressed out with the cleanliness of the house. When you add another person in the house all day plus cooking another meal, it tends to get messy faster. Plus we all know that boys are not the cleanest. That being said, I have to tell a story about him…

One of his big projects while he’s home is to clean up the outside of the house. There are just piles upon piles of JUNK and tree limbs. It’s been driving Matt crazy so he got after them yesterday with the tractor. Well, I guess he uncovered a nest of baby rabbits that was in a big pile of tree limbs. Before I go any further, our dog has been known to kill baby rabbits just by licking them. He just loves them to death and we call him Lenny. So Matt uncovers this nest and feels bad, so he catches one that had run off, covers them back up with some grass and leaves them there thinking that they really won’t last long with Lenny around. Today he went to take out the trash and was gone for a while. He comes back in and says that he just had to move the baby rabbits. They were still there all cuddled up and shaking so he put them in a big can and covered them up with their grass hoping that would give them a better chance at surviving (mind you, we have no shortage of rabbits around here.) He said he just couldn’t bear the thought that he had uncovered them and that they might not make it because of that. I said, “Well, they’re just rabbits.” And he said, “But they’re babies.” I know…stab me in the heart….So hopefully Matt saved the baby bunnies and they’ll grow big and strong and eat his garden down to stumps.

I love that I married a man that has a tender heart and can only pray that that quality is instilled in Fischer as well. That quality is how he takes care of me and the kids the best. Yeah, he works hard and brings home the bacon and does the manly stuff, but he also loves us and cares for us 1000 times more than he cared for those baby bunnies. I am so blessed to call him mine.