Mantra

"Housework imperfectly done still blesses my family."

Take a deep breath and repeat.  Repeat again . . . and again.

I'm having trouble adjusting to being fully responsible for housework again.  Not that I ever got off the hook completely, but I've been very spoiled for the last 3+ years.  My sister Camie would come every week and clean my house, taking on the weekly stuff such as mopping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms.  She tackled my stove and microwave, cleaned out my fridge, and made sure that vacuuming around the baseboards got done with the hose attachment.

Seriously, I haven't emptied my bathroom trash since October 2008.

But now Camie's life has gotten crazy and she's just a teensy bit overwhelmed as she finishes up school.  And the real purpose (besides helping while on bedrest or overwhelmed myself) was to give Camie a way to earn some extra cash (my mom paid her to do it).  It wasn't really to make sure that I was the most spoiled homemaker on the planet.  So now I'm back to being responsible for all the chores, big or little, around my house.

I don't mind.  I've never minded cleaning bathrooms, for example.  Well, I loathe cleaning floors (especially mopping).  But I can still force myself to do it.  The problem is I tend to get a little bit perfectionistic about it all.  I want all my house sparkling clean at the same time and DONE RIGHT.  However, I just don't have time to do things that way.  My life is simply too full, and S only gives me short windows where I can rush through a chore.  Plus, the other kids come behind and undo all my hard work pretty quickly.

Tonight I managed to get my kitchen floor swept and mopped, which it desperately needed.  I should be congratulating myself quite heartily on this feat, but all I can see are the cluttered and dirty counters and kitchen table.

And so I'm trying to remind myself of some of the Flylady's wisdom: "Housework imperfectly done still blesses my family!"

Comments

Stefanie said…
I struggle with perfectionism, too. One day Riley told me that a imperfectly done anything was better than only a perfect picture that I carried in my head. I try and tell myself that, but its really hard. I can relate a lot to this blog post, especially now as I try and cope with morning sickness. I often feel disappointed with my efforts around my house, in my calling, in my parenting and frankly in all aspects of my life. I'm trying to reframe my life so that I look at the positives and ignore the negatives. Good luck, I'm glad I'm not the only one who struggles with us. Convincing myself that I should still do something even when I know it won't be the way I'd really like it to be is a very hard thing for me.

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