Yesterday I started getting our home back in order. For almost 2 months I had not done any kind of major cleaning. You know the kind where you get down on your hands and knees and really scrub the crap off of any surface below your waistline. I love to deep clean. I feel so empowered and in control.
I paid particular attention to the kitchen floors, baseboard, walls, and under the bar counter where the kids sit. I had had enough of it looking dingy. I had focused my energies on making sure I could be there for the kids while they had their summer vacation, that the home had somewhat been neglected. My thoughts were mostly a "why should I bother" state. Yes the home would get swept, vacuumed and dishes done nightly, but no real scrubbing was done. Just the basics.
I could not belive how unbelievablly distgusting those surfaces had gotten in a relatively short period of time. I got my empty ice cream bucket, filled it close to 20 times with water and a cleaning solution(clorox's green works love it) and scrubbed my little heart out. Our baseboards are full of many ridges and so I had to pay special attention to how I cleaned those, if I wanted them to truly look clean.
I couldn't help but think of how this is so similar to what I do with my own life. How often have I put off fixing or cleaning up those sins that gunk up the walls of my inner soul? Although in this particular cicumstance I felt that my hiatus from deep cleaning was justified, how many times though, are there circumstances where I am just being lazy? My mentality becomes more of putting it off till tomorrow, it will still be there. Yeah with another layer of sin to clean up too.
I have a lot to work on. We all do. It is part of life. We will always have things on our to-do lists of life. I am still figuring out how to make sure what is on my list is what really matters. Am I prioritizing in the most efficient and effective way to make sure I am accomplishing what really matters most? How do I not get overwhelmed with all that is required of me? For me it is a constant balancing act. I think of those big metal scales. You know those ones where it has two sides. If you put the same amount of weight on either side the result is perfect balance. But if you add anything more or less to either side it throws off the balance.
For me spiritually, I have been off balance for quite some time. Since January. That's when it seems I had started to neglect doing those simple tasks of studying the scriptures daily and writing in my journal. I have felt it. So why am I still not doing anything about it. Excuses. I know my life is so much smoother when I incorporate these practices into my life, and yet I am not doing them on a consistent meaningful basis. So I just need to do it, and get it done. Repent and do better!
Back to the cleaning. Here is a not so fun thing about me. Maybe someone can relate. Or not.
I have a problem, and I try so hard not to have it. After I am done deep cleaning I get easily irritated with my family. I was even mentally telling myself that it will get messy again, it is just apart of having children. So don't bite their heads off when they have just spilled their Popsicle juice all over your (you could eat food off of) floor. I not so nicely remind them to please eat over their plate, because I just spent hours scrubbing the floors so they could be clean. It is the least they can do, as if they owe me something. I am such a control freak!
You know what is weird to me, is that if Jared is the one who has cleaned floors I don't get upset with our children when minutes after the floors are cleaned they spill something. Not cool.
The good news is that typically the day after I have deep cleaned, my control freak ideas subside somewhat, and I go back to be a normal control freak. Boy do I have a long way to go!
And for your viewing pleasure
This video reminds me that we need to just relax and have fun, even if we look a little silly. Or should I say especially if we look silly, because heaven knows me doing a jump kick, like Sera does in this video would certainly look down right silly. This was recorded at my sister Kaitlyn and brother in law Nicks home. We stopped there on our travels up to Utah. She made this deliciously homemade ham and cheese stuffed pretzel for dinner. Nick entertained the girls with their guitar hero games. I love everything about this video. From Emma being so focused in playing the guitar to Sera singing and dancing to Kady dancing briefly with her head before she goes into a state of being in the zone playing her guitar to Eliza walking around with her melted cheese stick from her stuffed pretzle.
