Maybe One Day

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." ~Phyllis Diller

I used to pride myself in keeping a clean home. It was almost always 'guest ready'. That was before Grace came along. Once she was born, the house slowly started to fill with baby paraphernalia.

But that was nothing compared to the toddler destruction that is going on now.

Last night, I couldn't stand the perpetual layer of crumbs and stickiness on my floor and tabletops a second longer, so I went into full on cleaning mode. It's not like I don't constantly spray, wipe, and sweep during the day either. But it all seems fruitless because at the end of the day, it looks like I did nothing but sit on the couch and eat bonbons all day long.

You would think that the deep cleaning would at least be slightly noticeable less than 24 hours later, but nope. It's back to normal- crumbs on the floor, sticky fingerprints on my furniture, spilled milk splatters from those 'spill proof' sippy cups.

Maybe one day my house will stay clean for longer than fifteen minutes. But until then, I guess I better just get used to all the mess.

As I was in the middle of cooking dinner, I heard Grace asking me to "Look at me, Mama! This is fun!" But since I was sauteeing garlic and onions at the stove, I just told her, "That's nice! I'll be there in a second!" When I finally got the chance to look, I saw she had colored in one of her daddy's books and spilled all her juice on it, the table, and floor. And she was drumming on the table causing the juice to splatter everything within a two foot radius.


She dragged her chair to the kitchen and pulled the bag of chips off the counter. What you can't see here are the bajillion crumb pieces on the floor that she was happily stomping on when I found her. All of this happened twenty minutes after I had swept and mopped the floor.

***Update: My dear friend, Nellie, shared this with me and I love it! A little something to keep it all in perspective...

Babies Don’t Keep
by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She’s up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I’ve grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping’s not done and there’s nothing for stew
And out in the yard there’s a hullabaloo
But I’m playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren’t his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I’ve learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.