Soup in the slow-cooker. Dishes in the sink. Mail and diaper bags on the kitchen table. Wooden blocks and baby doll clothes on the floor of each room.
Is this what having two kids is like?
Every day, I feel as though I’m fighting a losing battle, trying to maintain the chaos of my home. I would love, love, love to look up from a diaper change or a nursing session and find my entire house spotless. Dishes washed and put away. Counters sparkling. Floor swept and mopped. Everything wooden dusted and smelling of orange oil.
Where are the little elves from the fairy tales my grandmother read? Where are those little guys that would come in at night and help out the needy with their tasks? I think I qualify as needy when it comes to my house . . .at least right now.
I am the type of person that needs peace and order to maintain my sanity. For the past month, I have felt the stress of a newborn, the stress of a high-maintenance toddler, the stress of making food for everyone, the stress of worrying if my body is producing enough sustenance for the baby, and then the crazy stress of an unkempt house. UGH!
During naps, I try and get things in order — always listening and watching for the grunts and squirms that tell me my little buddy is about to wake up. Sometimes, I can actually get the entire kitchen clean. Sometimes, a load of laundry is folded. And, sometimes, all I get accomplished is throwing out the dirty diapers that have been changed that day.
I need a clean house. I need things orderly. I need a schedule. I need everything to look “pretty” in my life. Maybe if all of those things fell into place, the knots in my shoulders and back would ease and I wouldn’t sigh so much during the day.
Or, I could just take advantage of the massage package my husband purchased for me. I’m sure that would take care of the knots and sighs.
Then . . . maybe . . . while I was out enjoying the strong, therapeutic hands of a Swedish man named Hans (sorry, that’s the only semi-Swedish name I know!), those little elves would whip my house into a beautiful state of order and cleanliness.
And I would start out next week a new woman. A calmer woman. A woman who was the mistress of her domain.
At least until the Little Lady decided that she needed to use ALL of the wipes, the tube of desitin, and my lanolin cream to change her baby-doll’s diapers. That’s always fun and that’s what she is doing right now.
Gotta go!
