Housework

My theory of housework is, if the item doesn't multiply,
smell, catch fire or block refrigerator door, let it be.
No one else cares, why should you? Erma Bombeck

Amen Sister Erma!!

When we had our house on the market it was a chore to keep it up every day. A chore to keep the house ready for prospective buyers. And they always wanted to come at dinner time which makes sense because that was when they were off work and out house hunting.

So I cleaned up, maybe twice a day. We had to vamoose during the dinner hours. Ate a lot of take out. Even got to the point of parking in the car a few doors down from our house, running the AC of course and eating our Sonic burgers watching and waiting.

I LOVED HAVING THE HOUSE SO CLEAN ALL THE TIME. A whole summer of clear counters, swept up cat hair, newspapers going right in the trash, dishes instantly washed and put away.

But that was then, this is now. Now I live in a constant state of disarray. I do not take the time or the energy to keep my house in SUPER GREAT order, just regular order. Clean enough that the health department would not shut us down were they to visit.

But here is the kicker. If I am just a little bit emotionally off my game, a little bit stressed, worried or depressed, my regular house cleaning goes out the window and the clutter takes over.

So I am so pleased to find Erma Bombeck's quote at the beginning of this post. What freedom.

When I was a young mother I went to my Aunt Mary's house to visit. My Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill had 8 children, lived on a working dairy farm, and held part time jobs. And I noticed the dust bunnies frolicking around the edges of the formal dining room floor.

They made me love my Aunt all the more. Here was a women that was always emotionally there for me. Always celebrated me. Always laughed at my jokes, a rip roaring laugh. She would tell it like it was and keep on smiling. And she had dust bunnies.

I asked my mother if the dust bunnies were new or if they were always there. Mom said they were always there, I was just too young to notice.

Wow.

The freedom those bunnies granted me.
To live to love people, to drop everything when they arrived and put on a pot of coffee.
To NOT CARE about the condition of my house, but to care about the condition of heart of whomever was sitting with me.
To open my heart as well as my home.



My Aunt Mary. She is deceased but her love- lives on.