Making the Effort

So, here I sit, a year and a bit after I became a full-time SAHM, and I am about to enter the workforce again. Yet again the dynamics are changing--DD has started preschool, I am going to be teaching 3 hours per week, and I wonder what will happen to the new groove I have finally established with respect to housework.

It has taken me a year, peeps, to understand where my strengths and weaknesses lie in the housework arena, and it has also taken me that long to fully engage and commit to doing it as part of my JOB as opposed to that thing that gets done eventually and who really cares about it anyway? Well, I have discovered that I do care when neighbors stop by and my house is an atrocious mess worthy of the title, "Just Recovering from Hurricane Rita". I know I have two little kids, but if I haven't vacuumed in a week and the leftover dinner dishes are still on the table and the kitchen counters are cluttered with dirty dishes when someone stops over for a cup of tea, well, that doesn't reflect too well on my ability to juggle things, does it?

I have to keep up with the house all the time. There are no "break days" when it comes to keeping the house clean. In fact, right now, I have 4 clutter points that require cleaning. And a couple of pieces of furniture that require emptying and removal to the cottage (a task that requires DH, so will be accomplished this weekend). And I have 3 more loads of laundry to fold (this after a mammoth effort yesterday wherein 8 loads were washed, folded, and put away). And I really need to systematically organize our dining room storage areas. And so it goes. There is never an end. Dishes always need to be done. Floors require twice weekly vacuuming, at a minimum. Mopping really ought to be done every week, but at this stage I'm doing good to get it done every two weeks or so. And the clutter is an endless battle.

DD is just getting to an age where she can help pick up her own room and tidy away her own toys. At her preschool they each get different jobs to do, so my plan is after she is used to this little chore at school, it will be introduced at home. A chore chart with stickers and prizes is in the works. I really need her to start picking up her own room, because frankly I hardly ever have the time to do it and I think she's old enough to grasp the concepts of "if you don't put it away you can't find it to play with it later" and "you lose toys that you don't put away". This should dovetail nicely with removing some toys to be reintroduced as DS's toys later, so I have high hopes for success...eventually.

I don't know how the weekly burden of quiz writing, lab report grading, and teaching prep will impact all of the above. I suspect that DD's schooltime will become my prep time, but it remains to be seen if DS will cooperate with his naps. As usual, just when I get into a groove, things go topsy-turvy again. I believe it's called life.