30 day challenge update-why am I doing this again? oh yeah, pride:)

So....this challenge has been good for me. It has helped me to create better habits and to examine how I REALLY do things.

Things I have learned:

~If I'm really tired at night and don't tidy the kitchen and family room before bed, then the next day starts out annoying somehow.

~So when I'm really tired, I need to enlist (even more) the help of my family to accomplish this.

~When your house is clean, mostly, all the time, you can invite your brother and his family over for dinner, and not need to scramble to have everything clean. That, was AWESOME!

~You start noticing that your older children are so happy that the house is clean, that they start to help without being asked. Love that.

~When the doorbell rings, you don't panic.

~When things are starting to get messy, you think, "Darn that 30 day challenge, I have to CLEAN!"

So I wanted to let you see how my house is really doing. So I took pictures.

Lets start with the good, shall we?

This room doesn't get used much, so it stays nice without needing anything than an occasional dusting.



The dining room wasn't too bad...the kitchen needs to be wiped down from breakfast still and I see some stray blankets that find their way downstairs with my sleepy eyed children:) Oh, and a fortune teller. Remember making those?



And then we come to the photo of the post breakfast apocalyptic kitchen. Honestly, still having dishes in the sink from dinner(the dishwasher was full and running, no more room folks!) and then the aftermath of 8 breakfasts and getting lunch together and give-me-a-break-it's only 8 o'clock in the morning makes for a kitchen I'm not proud of. But by the time everyone's home? It's better, I promise.




So there you go. Reality. My reality. This house and the 8 people that live in it are a full time job. Keeping it clean-ish is a full time job. Never mind other responsibilities and things I need to chaperon-ok sideline for a second. Did you know that the correct spelling of chaperone is actually chaperon? I hate it. It seems wrong even though spell check is telling me otherwise. Frances? Any thoughts?

Aaaannny way.

Basically even with all my effort, my house is not spotless. Right now the bathrooms need their weekly cleaning, the kitchen floor needs a thorough mopping, and the tv is dusty. Which as you know, according to Martha Stewart, that's when it's time to dust.

BUT. I am honestly quite pleased with how it's going. I feel like I have my groove back, for the most part. I still hate laundry and it still piles up. But that's been true for me for the past 10 years. So I'm not going to stress.

How have you all done? Has anyone stayed with me on this? I hope so. It's awfully nice to be able to invite anyone in at anytime and know that I don't have to make excuses. Well, too many anyway.

Happy cleaning!