The Clean Factor

All right, confession time:

I loathe cleaning.

But I also love sitting down after cleaning the house, looking around, and feeling light and free. You know what I'm talking about, right?

I grew up in a household that was always busy. It seemed like there was something to do almost every night, whether it was FHE, symphony rehearsal, dance practices, swim lessons, piano lessons, mutual, scouts, this, that, and the other plus school. By the time Saturday rolls around, the last thing any kid--and probably any mother-- wants to do is clean the house. As the song goes, however, Saturday is a special day, it's the day we get ready for Sunday... and for my family, Saturday was the only day to clean. So the chore lists were written, complaints were filed and whining was sounded, guilt was passed around until one of us finally did way more cleaning than was fair, and Mom was probably the only one who cleaned anything properly.

Out of habit, I tried to clean on Saturdays. Now, don't get me wrong-- I have an apartment. Apartments are just the right size that you should be able to clean the entire thing in a couple hours if you just buckled down and did it. It wouldn't be that big of a deal, right? For me, apparently not. Things only really got clean when one of us went on a binge, most likely out of annoyance, and the other joined in because we are really good at sharing emotions.

So while on Pinterest (judge me if you want) I saw an idea for a cleaning rotation. It was a two-week setup that got you to clean the house for what looked like less than an hour a day. Half commitment? Sounds like my kind of chore chart! So I took it, and adapted it for our needs in our apartment.

What I loved most about this is that it got through everything. We don't use our shower enough to wash it every week, so instead of have the bathrooms on one square, I just spread it out. The floors get vacuumed twice a week, but the living room gets vacuumed an extra two times because it seems like there are always crumbs everywhere (thanks to a 9-month-old food lover). Rest Days are Sundays, because that is how it should be. And there are the daily things that need to be done, too, such as making the beds, and loading the dishwasher so that clutter stays down in the kitchen.

Now, I realise this is super minimal and probably makes me look lazy. I don't care, because this works for me. As I dusted the surfaces today, I couldn't help but smile because I knew it would help keep my allergies down this summer. When I use the sink in the evening, it's nice to see it clean instead of hairy and dirty. Making my chore list minimal is fantastic, because it gives me time to do the things I want to do, and it makes my "chore of the day" so much less intimidating. Now I can look around and be proud of my house, instead of being embarrassed every time Husband Man comes home from work. Don't get me wrong-- I fall behind. Today I did pretty much everything that I should have been doing all week. Things were busier than usual, and I didn't get to the cleaning. But I took the time, got it done, and now I'm all caught up. And it feels fantastic. I feel more successful as a housewife.

One of my friends recently told me a cleaning trick: If it takes less than two minutes to finish, then just do it. I'm not very good at this, but it's starting to work for me. Instead of looking at my shirts on the floor, I can just hang them up and be done with it. I've noticed that it's the jobs that take less than two minutes that are what keep the clutter off of the floor, and that alone makes your house feel cleaner! If you have a smaller livingspace, such as a dinky one-bedroom apartment, keeping clutter away helps your space to look larger.

Just put your completed chart in a clear sleeve, and you're ready to go!

Oh yeah, the "Don't Forget" part is so I could write in events and appointments that are happening in the upcoming week. That would have been a great place to remind myself that we were feeding the missionaries today... 

Gummy Bear: 9 Months Old

The monster Gummy Bear is now 29 3/4 inches tall (93%), 22 lb 12 oz (91%), and his head circumference is 47 cm (94%). Every time people ask how old he is, they stare at me in disbelief! And I just nod and say, "Yep... he's a monster!" Haha!

Gummy Bear is walking: I repeat, Gummy Bear is walking! He's taken a step or two before on his own, but in the last week or so he's really taken off-- literally! I catch him toodling around and then falling over, or tripping over something, and sometimes he just stands there. He is walking longer and longer distances, and walks back and forth from the kitchen to the living room. My favorite part are his hands, way up in the air by his head, trying to keep his balance... Although most recently he walks around while chewing on a toy. This last Sunday he figured out how to stand up unassisted, and we're giving him a week, maaaaybe two, before he figures out how to run. He tries to run but ends up falling over, and then he gets up and walks very carefully, trying to have patience... It's so funny. He's too smart!

The monster also doesn't like grass, or at least the half-dead variety... Our area is slow to get green grass, and the two times I've put him on the brown grass he picks up his hands and looks at the grass like it's gross, and then starts to cry. Every time! A couple days ago we took him out and tried to get him used to it, and he just whined the entire time. It's hilarious! My friend raked the dead grass out of her yard and he likes her grass better, so it's probably just the dead grass he hates. The more we take him outside the more he's getting used to the feeling of grass and concrete and rocks under his feet.

He still loves food. A LOT. Whenever we eat something he comes up to us and stares at the food until we give him some. If he likes it, he hangs around, and if he doesn't then he moves on. The staples, such as Cheerios and graham crackers, he scarfs down; chocolate food is even better. I was eating chocolate teddy grahams at a friend's house, and he thought that was the greatest thing since chocolate pudding. (I figure this chocolate love should be attributed to the maaaaaany bowls of Cocoa Dino-Bites I ate when I was pregnant, haha!) I could feed him all day and he would never get tired of it. He still licks everything, too, (like me and my pants,) although he's starting to test the waters with his two little teeth, and will sometimes give his toys a thorough inspection before slobbering on them, as if he hasn't seen that part of it before.

He's very observant, but only when something really catches his attention. Lately he will stare at commercials on tv that involve lots of animals, and will push you away if you get in front of him and block his view. We were standing by the stairs the other day talking with another couple, and as their 17-month-old son came down the stairs on his bum Gummy Bear watched very intently, just like he did when he watched older kids run around. You can almost see the wheels turning in his head, how can I do that...? There was one time I was trying to teach him how to go up stairs, since we don't have any in our apartment for him to practice on, and he wasn't buying it and spent the entire time whining. Fast forward a month or two, and I'm at a friend's house... and I look over and he's climbing the stairs. What?? This kid learns quickly!

His favorite games are anything to do with being thrown around, and when you roll him across the floor. The rolling game is great, because he almost tucks his arms up so you can roll him unhindered and he will crawl back to you over and over again. Going for walks is great, even if it's just in the hall of our apartment building--I think he's sick of our apartment! We walked to the thrift store down the street today and he just stared and looked around and didn't move until we stopped walking. He also loves to shake his head "no". It seems like the head shaking is just for fun, until you yell "No!" at him when he's touching the tv and he looks at you, grins, and shakes his head... and then touches the tv again. We're pretty sure he gets the basic concept, but doesn't listen. Booger.

See those shoes in the picture? One of my friends uses these soft shoes for her baby, and said she liked them because they were difficult to get off. So we purchased some, and he wore them... maybe half a dozen times. Then the shoes looked to be in worse condition than my friend's, probably because he crawled everywhere in them and scraped them on things trying to walk around, and so we just shook our heads and put them away... and Gummy Bear has been shoe-less ever since.

Being opinionated is another thing he likes. Sometimes (oftentimes) his reactions are extreme. He's either really happy and excited and chirps and smiles and is silly, or he's screaming and crying and yelling... And the squealing! Oh man. We were in Walmart the other afternoon, and every so often he would let out an ear-piercing squeal! It's all fun and games until he squeals in your ear... Naptime and going to bed can be tricky because he will only snuggle with me when he feels like it; otherwise he yells and cries and struggles to get away. So then I put him in his crib so he can go to sleep on his own, but then he sits there playing and chirping in the dark... The little stinker. Reading books to him is also difficult, because he always wants to close the book and pat it, which means you're trying to read him a bedtime story and he's squishing your fingers inside the book trying to push it closed! We still don't let him have the board books all the time, either, because he still chews on them until they start disintegrating in his mouth.

He is doing fantastic, overall. He loves playing with the big kids, getting Mommy's attention (whether by being cute or by being annoying and doing thing he isn't supposed to...), and getting Daddy to throw him around. We love this guy, even if he always keeps us on our toes!!

FHE Monday #6

March apparently wasn't a good month for Family Home Evening; however, we started April off with General Conference and FHE! It probably helps that it is warmer outside. March is so depressing!

I kept this last FHE simple, but I think it's just as important. We started by singing "Book of Mormon Stories", making sure Gummy Bear was watching and listening. I said an opening prayer, and then pulled out our scriptures. I had this great idea to use GB's "My First Book of Mormon Stories" board book along with our scriptures: I opened to the first story in the book, read it to him, and then connected it to a couple verses in the Book of Mormon. This first story was about Lehi and the Lord's promise to lead him and his family to the promised land. The verses I picked were 1 Nephi 1:20 and 2:1....
"...But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."
"...Blessed art thou Lehi, because of the things which thou hast done; and because thou hast been faithful and declared unto this people the things which I commanded thee..."

We let Gummy Bear play while we talked for just a few minutes about the scripture, and then moved on to the lesson. I pulled it from our little book of FHE for newlyweds. This particular one was about marriage myths, addressing the expectations that people often have in marriage that are unrealistic. It asked us to read a list of 10 myths, and talk about whether we believe them or not.

1. Marriage should always make you happier than when you were single.
2. The romance will stay alive if you really love each other.
3. Your mate should automatically understand you.
4. In a good marriage, partners have identical dreams and goals.
5. If your sex life starts out good, it will stay that way.
6. If you have to work at marriage, something is wrong.
7. You should work on changing your spouse for the better.
8. Happily married couples should never fight.
9. You can't find self-fulfillment in marriage or family relationships.
10. Your ideas about an ideal marriage should not change.

Some of these we had trouble with, mostly because we felt they were so vague. For example, when we read number four we realised that we had similar dreams and goals for our family, but as individuals it is ok to have different dreams and goals. And we were both perplexed by number nine, and ended up skipping over it. At the same time, we also had some good mini discussions about some of these, so maybe the vague-ness is a good thing. In our case, we both knew that marriage wasn't all butterflies and roses and that it took work and effort. We also know that a lot of other couples may not have ever thought about any of these before. Husband Man and I have always made an effort to talk about everything, and I think that helped us learn a lot about each other.

You could easily make this a longer, more in-depth study about marriage by reading or listening to President Gordon B. Hinckley's talk "What God Hath Joined Together" from the April 1991 General Conference. There is a particular quote that he mentioned that really connects to this lesson:

Of course, all in marriage is not bliss. Years ago I clipped these words from a column written by Jenkins Lloyd Jones:

“There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and ravishing wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear the divorce courts are jammed. …

“Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.” (Deseret News, 12 June 1973, p. A4.)

He goes on to mention some difficulties that we could face in marriage, and how we can overcome them. It brings hope that a prophet of the Lord acknowledges that marriage can be difficult, and that there is help and hope that we can make it worth our time.

We finished by singing "I love mommy, she loves me..." a couple of times, and then Husband Man said a closing prayer. Once again our home was filled with peace and gentle love as we prepared to go to bed. I am so grateful that we can feel the blessings of having FHE, a simple affirmation that this simple act as a family is so important and so worth it!