There Once Was a Lady Who Lived in a Shoe

I was thinking of asking you, people who are there, people who have been there, this question:

How do you keep your house clean when you have three small children living it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week?

Then I laughed at my own thought!  Because I would laugh at someone who was trying to keep her house clean with three little kids - little tazmanian boys -  in it who never leave - not for daycare, not for school, not for anything.  And if they are not in the house, I am out of it, taking them somewhere because I just cannot stay in the house with them and their mess for another minute!

So instead of cleaning the bathroom, starting the bedding laundry, unloading the dishwasher, changing the rest of the sheets, I am writing you about this absurd idea that I cannot let go of.  

The idea that my house should be clean.  Really clean.

(Because, I mean, it's clean enough....)

Where do I get that?

Why?

I was a slobby kid and a messy teenager, but I still managed to get good grades and marry a winner.  When did I decide that I had to be a neat freak? (I think it was during my 7 years of child free marriage when I enjoyed a clean house.  I kind of got used to it...)

And I'm not a freak.

I do NOT lose sleep at night because I'm awake, mopping the floors or dusting the blinds.

Far from it.  

I just want some order.

Some shred of decency so that I when I look around, I feel like I've got it together.

That I'm not the stereotypical crazy lady who doesn't shower or clean her house because she lives in a shoe and has so many children she doesn't know what to do.

So I showered.  And I'm brewing a second cup of coffee.  And I just put Sesame Street on for the twins.  I have until 10:55 to get something accomplished if the baby keeps sleeping.

My mom knows.  She bought me this:

 It's hanging in my kitchen, ironically, directly above C's high chair spot.  And if you have a one year old in a high chair....you get the irony.

My mom was there 30 years ago so I know she gets it.  And now her house is clean.  So I guess in 30 years mine will be, too.  (Sigh)