Day 11: WOE IS ME!!!

All right. I'm going to be whining today. That's right. I'm getting really real, for realsies.

Week Two has been very hard. I have been, despite my cheery encouragement from the other day, very unmotivated to keep up with the schedule exactly as it's spelled out. I've let a few things slide. I've caught back up, then fallen behind again. Have I mentioned I'm not great at discipline?

The hardest thing has been the bedroom pickups that she recommends. Because in my house, it's very easy to clean the main spaces because all of the toys are just relocated to the kids' bedrooms. But cleaning the kids' bedrooms? Not so fun. You have to sit, sort, put away. And then what happens? Yes, you all know. It looks exactly the same as it did by the end of the day. And you know what? Yes, you all know. IT'S A LITTLE FRUSTRATING!! I can make the kids "clean their rooms" but it's not really effective, because they mostly clear the floor and then I have to go sit, sort, and put away all the toys that are at the edges of the floor.

I'm tired this morning. I fell asleep on the couch last night. Sometime in the night, I evidently decided it was a good idea to move to the recliner (instead of my bed?? I have trouble reclining that chair when I'm awake) and so I slept there, fully clothed, all night. I woke up, stunned to find myself in the chair, feeling creasy from clothes-wearing and crinked from sleeping in a semi-reclined position. (Can you believe my spell-check doesn't believe in the words "creasy" or "crinked"?)

And I might as well admit my other problem. There's really no point in hiding it anymore. I ran out of paper plates on Tuesday. Try to understand, I use paper plates for almost every meal. Maybe one day I'll behave like a "real" grownup and only use paper plates for cookouts and birthday parties, but for right now, I don't have a dishwasher or very much counter space or children who are old enough to do the dishes without breaking them. And let me tell you, the real dishes pile up real quick-like when no paper products are being used. It's defeating.

I know the whole point of this type of cleaning is to see the eternal value of our work as home makers, but I'm having trouble breaking through now that the newness has worn off. I'm going to do something I haven't done before now, because I'm being careful to preserve Sarah Mae's privacy policy, but I think sharing just one day as a sample would be okay. Here's what I'm supposed to do today:

Day 11: Kitchen, Mains Spaces, Bedroom Pick-up, Load of Laundry, Bathrooms

What the what??! See what I mean? Now, if I would've been actually working on the bedrooms one day at a time, like I was supposed to this week, then maybe this wouldn't seem like such a crazy-hard request. But I feel like I'm getting ready to show my house to potential buyers or something. I mean, that list up there? That's pretty much my WHOLE HOUSE. And I still have no paper plates! And I have other things I want to do today!

Have I mentioned that doing jobs partially just doesn't give you the same sense of satisfaction as doing them fully? Like doing the dishes, but not clearing off your other counters doesn't make the kitchen actually clean? Yeah, if this was my paid job, I probably would've been fired long ago for failure to complete projects on time.

All right. I'm done whining. I'm going to go play camping with my son. Then I'm going to start cleaning, hopefully with an eye set on the eternal value, so I don't get caught up in the repetitive mundane-ness of the chores. My encouragement for today comes from my calendar and memory verse #12:

"Sometimes, God, the path before us is difficult. But help us to do our best in walking it. When we are tired, give us energy. When we want to turn around, put up roadblocks. When we feel like we can't finish, encourage us. Steady us when we stumble, carry us when we're weak. Through You we have the strength to keep walking. Amen."

"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher (emphasis mine) of our faith." ~Hebrews 12:1-2

Memory Verse 12:

Proverbs 31:27 (NLT)
“She carefully watches all that goes on in her household and does not have to bear the consequences of laziness.”