A Clean House

I find I have a new worry about homeschooling.  Cleaning the house.  What, pray tell, does one have to do with the other? you might ask.  I have been thinking a lot about my inability to manage the regular drudgery of housework as it is, not to mention what happens when I undertake a new (full-time) job.  Now, in theory,I am able to keep up with the dishes, laundry, straightening, putting away stuff and all that other mindless junk that must occur daily.  But, the reality is, that something  will happen causing a backlog in one area, resulting in a backlog of another area as I fix the first one and so on and so on.  My mother recently visited  and helped me fold 7 (yes seven!) loads of laundry that had accumulated following a camping trip.  I kept piling the laundry in baskets and thinking to myself, OK I’m gonna fold that tomorrow,  well after 3 days of that and a growing unwashed pile I began feeling overwhelmed.  Finally, Mom came to visit, and helped me fold, pile, and put away (and we did another 2 loads while we accomplished that).  So, it got done, and the relief for me was almost palpable.  I felt lighter and freer, out from the heavy load (literally) .  But it only takes an off day to get behind.   It then gets so easy to say Eh I’ll do it later. In a way it is kind of like debt.  Once you get into debt, and you feel like you can’t pay it off, it gets easier to slip deeper and deeper (an experience I have had in the past and is much harder to get out from under than than a dirty house). 

So the house cycles, it gets dirty and things build up.  The shortcuts I take when cleaning become larger problems to manage (piling things into a drawer to hide them from company only works for so long before you have to spend a considerable amount of time to clean out the drawer- only to start stuffing it again the next week).  Eventually,  I lose my mind, scream and yell, and break child labor laws in numerous states, to whip things back under control.  But how am I going to get it all done AND homeschool?  Should be an interesting adjustment.  Suffice to say that we all will have to  put up with a bit more, pitch in a bit more,and overall try to let go a bit more.