The Good Life

We have a big house, there is just no getting around that. It is nice and all and I am EXTREMELY grateful to be so blessed in our lives, but it is A LOT of house to clean. We have been looking for someone to help clean the house but I have trust issues and some other hopefuls have fallen through the cracks or are not available.

I have several projects that I have been wanting to accomplish, but they never get done because any free time I have I spend it cleaning the house. So, after pimping the job to one of my technician's sister, she accepted the 'challenge'. I even brought her over to the house at the height of it's dirtiness to show her what she was in for and I promised that I would not do the 'clean your house before the cleaning lady comes' bit, that what she saw was what she was going to have to work with. Surprisingly she still accepted the position and we now officially have a cleaning person that will come weekly.

I cannot begin to tell you how great it felt to come home to a clean house. It took her about 4 hours to do the main floor (kitchen, breakfast area, dining room, utility, utility bathroom, and formal living area), the lower level bathroom (a.k.a. Liza and Jerm's bathroom), the upstairs hallway and nook and Garth Le's bedroom and bathroom. This included sweeping, moping and vacuuming of approximately 4,000 sq ft of floor. She did a GREAT job and I am so excited!

When I got home last night I was able to take care of one of the projects that I have been wanting to do since I stole the idea from my sister-in-law. I took all of our DVDs out of their cases and put them into CD holder cases. We are horrible about not putting DVDs back into their right case or back in at all, so this way, they are all in one place and they take up about 90% less room.

I also cooked our lightest ham (16 pounds) we got from our pig and it turned out great. We will have ham sammies forever off that one ham.

My next project is our bedroom and bathroom. We have to go through clothes and throw out ones that we don't wear and I also want to create something on a wall in the bathroom for my jewelry. I don't like people in my room, so I am not having my cleaning lady do our room or bathroom and I am also making Garth Le take care of his play room, so those are the only areas of the house that aren't spic and span right now, making them the top of my current priority list.
The next job I want to tackle is the cabinets in the laundry room. There is so much random stuff in there and we need the room for food storage, so I will most likely work on that next.

Other items on my list are: clean garage, organize and throw away/store toys from Garth Le's playroom, clean and winterize the backyard and porch, move Foosball table to porch or garage, organize and decorate the office, organize the wet bar area (maybe get a popcorn machine), find a cool way to decorate Garth Le's playroom with his assignments from school, organize linen closet, organize cabinets in kitchen (throw away Tupperware without lids, etc.) and I am sure I will think of more things, but I am very excited at the prospect of having the time to do these things.

I am also going to go back to my 7 on, 7 off schedule starting the end of this month so I will have essentially every other week off of work to get various things accomplished. I am excited that my life is becoming more organized for a lot of reasons. I have come to realize that it really is important to have a house of order in order to do the things you need to do to serve your family and the Lord, so here I go in an earnest effort to be more orderly. Wish me luck! Thanks to Debbie for all of her hard work on the house, she did a great job!!!

D&C 88:119-120
Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing; and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
That your incomings may be in the name of the Lord; that your outgoings may be in the name of the Lord; that all your salutations may be in the name of the Lord, with uplifted hands unto the Most High.

I know that there is a lot involved in having your 'house in order', but I personally think that one of those things is to ACTUALLY have your house in order, so I am making this a priority for my family.