Cleaning for 4 hours every day - no way.....but wait...

A few years back, I think it was, I saw part of an episode of "The Wife Swap" - now, while I do not like the premise of this show AT ALL, I was intrigued by the promo that showed this woman cleaning and cleaning for FOUR HOURS EVERY DAY....uh....huh.

I wondered what on earth she was doing for 4 hours EVERY DAY and this turned out to be a woman who did NOT have anyone at home w/her all day (like us homeschool mamas or moms of wee ones not yet going off to public schools)......I was amazed....wondering what on earth she could possibly have to do for cleaning that required 4 hours....EVERY DAY....did I mention the show said she did this EVERY DAY????

I watched in amazement as she cleaned where there appeared to be nothing to clean....and thought her insane and changed the channel.

Today......I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, JUST maybe, if *I* cleaned our house for 4 hours every day, MAYBE it'd BE clean. But, guess what? After ONE day of cleaning for what seems to have been the better part of the day.....it's still not clean and...ahem....I packed half a box. We're supposed to close in about 2 weeks on the new house and this house is a big, huge, clutter-filled mess....at least to my eyes...and since I'm here all the time...looking at said mess....well, that's what it is.

I have never claimed to be a perfect housekeeper, not by a long shot. I look at magazine pictures of "rooms" and think, wow, what a pretty room.....but then CKB reminds me that noone really lives there. Yeah, yeah, I know. I see tv shows w/pretty, neat houses and think, wow, I wish our house could look like that....but do I really? I trip over countless toys and wish the children would pick up SOMETHING without me telling them to.....repeatedly.....sometimes distractedly......resulting in a higher pitch to my telling....some of you would call it screaming, but I'm a Southern lady and well, I don't do that...ahem.......but then I think it won't be any time at all and my babies won't be babies any more and the toys will be gone.....and I think it's not that bad....really, it's not.......

Yet, still, I long for some sense of order....a place for everything and everything in its place....w/o me always being the one to put it there.....

Will it ever happen? Probably not.....   Will I ever learn to live with it? I don't know.....

We live here. Allllll the time. Not just in the mornings and after work/school.....alll the time.....the house will look lived in....it has to...it can't do anything but look lived in.....and so we go on.....messes are made....some get cleaned up....some wait for another day...month....monthS....ahem......

And so it is and probably ever shall be......

But I still wish sometimes it could just stay clean/tidy for a little while...WITHOUT me attempting to clean for 4 hours every day....because, well, we all know THAT just isn't going to happen....

Those are my ramblings after a day of trying to get something done around here....funny thing is all the other stuff still has to get done whilst trying to do all this organizing/cleaning/etc....like laundry, meals, dishes, caring for the children.....it's a wonder I get *anything* done.....ah well.  I suppose, when it comes down to it, and it's time to move...if we have to, we'll just throw everything in the truck and deal w/it later.....whenever that is.  :)