Mayhem and Foolishness

"Who wants a clean house?!"

I seriously love the show Clean House, only because it makes me feel better about my own disaster of a living space. While you might have to clear a place to sit, you can walk around without tripping on piles of clothing, toys, or paperwork... most of the time. ;)

I do not consider myself a neat freak by ANY stretch of the imagination. I was raised in a house where on Saturday morning you cleaned the bathrooms, vacuumed the house and did the laundry. Every night, my somewhat OCD father, would clean up the kitchen. (Side note: while my dad would clean up the kitchen every night, you could NEVER see the surface of his desk in our office... EVER).

Scott and I butt heads every so often about cleaning the house. I am of the mind that the bathrooms should be done every week, cat litter should be emptied every few days, and when the dog hair gets thick enough on the hardwood floor that it looks like we have carpeting, that it is time to vacuum/steam mop them. Most of the time, Scott could care less. If we are having company, he turns into the cleaning tornado. The man becomes Merry Maids at hyperspeed.
But back to the point of this post.

Four weeks ago, I was placed on "Modified Bedrest". My instructions from my doctor were "No cleaning, no lifting, no laundry. Just sit around the house and be lazy." Scott has been superman: taking care of Caleb, doing all the spring yard work, and making dinner almost every night. I know how much he loves me by how much he has been doing for me. The second week of bedrest, my dad was here and able to utilize his OCD tendencies to clean the house for us and to paint the nursery.

Both my in-laws and dad have felt kind of helpless during this stressful time, and both have offered to pay for someone to come and clean the house. We finally gave in, but it was after a lot of discussion on our part about what we needed time for as a family and maintaining a sanity level.

I had a recommendation of a cleaning person to call from a former patient. The first visit did nothing to set mind my at ease about my cleaning ability. She ran her finger along the top of door jams, base boards, window blinds and tub surrounds, all the while making "mmmhmmmm" noises to herself and the occasional "Don't mind me honey!" directed at me. When she finished her inspection, she let me know what her prices were (very reasonable) and that she would purchase the cleaning supplies she liked to use, with the understanding that we would re-imburse her. Fair enough!

Today is my first day with my cleaning lady. While I have sat here blogging, she has spend one and a half hours cleaning our two bathrooms. I hear grunts and sighs, and while I feel a little guilty, I love the idea that tonight when I go to bed, my house will be clean and my family will be together.