Spring Cleaning

Since Lucy has been born, I have been trying to find a good balance of caring for her and keeping up with household tasks. There is so much baby stuff in our house right now, that for a while I felt like all I could do was keep the clutter at bay. (And sometimes I could only get the clutter and mess cleaned at the end of the day, after the kids were asleep.)  Part of me has realized that I need to "let go" a little bit when the clutter accumulates (something that I considered would be a possibility when I was pregnant). But I also want to make sure that my house is clean, because it's the only way that I can truly feel relaxed when I'm at home.

Between caring for Lucy and work, it was difficult for me to do more intensive or time-consuming household cleaning tasks, even something like vacuuming. And I have longed to do Spring Cleaning this year, since I wasn't able do to much last year when I was pregnant. And now, thanks to a recommendation from my friend Joanna, I think I have found a way to better stay on top of household tasks.

I have been following @cleanmama on Instagram for the past few weeks. She has a weekly cleaning routine with a different task every day, which she posts each morning. And, for just this month, she has been posting a Spring Cleaning task each day as well (for her "Spring Clean in 30 Challenge"). It's been really nice to wake up and have someone tell me which tasks to perform - she has great ideas for cleaning areas that I don't normally consider, but get grimy, dusty, or full of cobwebs (like light switch plates or the corners of ceilings). Although some of her tasks don't always fit with what I need to clean, her program has been a good general guide.

Since I'm such a goal-oriented person, I've been doing well under this program. The house is cleaner and I feel more on top of things. Now I just have about a week left of the Spring Clean Challenge! If anyone is interested in starting up the challenge, you can follow her on Instagram or check out her website.

The other thing that we have implemented is a Responsibility Chart for Sam. Sam has had a smattering of responsibilities around the house for the past couple of years, but we haven't had a consistent pattern or list of all of the things that he is expected to do. We got the Magnetic Chore Chart by Melissa and Doug to hang on our fridge, and I think it has been helpful for Sam to see (and get to mark off) the tasks that he is expected to do. I think he'll use this chart for a few years, until Lucy is old enough to take over. (Some of the options for tasks and responsibilities are more appropriate for a smaller child, but we have found enough that fit with what Sam is expected to do.)

What do you do to stay on top of household cleaning chores as a family? Once I finish this Spring Clean Challenge, I hope to move my energy outdoors so I can truly tackle the weeds in the garden...

Lucy as a Carriage

Last night we were leaving J's parents' house when it was fairly close to the kids' bedtime. Lucy was starting to get a little bit grumpy and tired, so J said to his mother, "We'd better leave. She's turning into a pumpkin."

As we drove away, Sam asked why J said that Lucy was turning into a pumpkin. We explained that this figure of speech goes back to the Cinderella story, and that it means that when a certain time has been reached on the clock, something can change into something else (similar to how Cinderella's coach turns back into a pumpkin at midnight). I said something to the effect that "turning into a pumpkin" means that a baby is starting to get fussy and angry, instead of being happy.

Then after school today, Sam had a friend over to play. This little boy asked if Lucy was a happy baby, and Sam said confidently, "Yep! She's happy. She's a carriage!" Ha ha! He must have extrapolated that happy babies are called "carriages" or "coaches" if fussy babies are "pumpkins." Cute boy.

"The Phantom Tollbooth" Awakening

Sam and I have just started to read The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (with annotations by Leonard S. Marcus). Sam and I are reading The Phantom Tollbooth section together, and then I'm going back through the chapters and reading the annotations on my own. It is so fun for me to pull out this book and read it with Sam. It was one of my favorite books as a child, and it's fun to re-experience and remember aspects of the plot (especially now with the perspective of an adult, while simultaneously getting to observe how Sam reacts to the story). In some ways, I feel like I'm reading this book for the first time all over again.

This is one particular quote that I enjoyed in one of the annotations tonight:

"As Pilgrim's Progress is concerned with the awakening of the sluggardly spirit, The Phantom Tollbooth is concerned with the awakening of the lazy mind" (Emily Maxwell, in her rave review of The Phantom Tollbooth in New Yorker, November 18, 1961).