Daily Dishes and Deep Thinking

While the kids are in school I have been doing a lot of thinking. This is usually why it helps me to have a year off from homeschooling. In that year I really look into how things are running or about decluttering. Organizing rooms that badly need it. Doing inventory at home to see what we need to get rid of or have too much of. It gives me a breather to step back and look into areas that might need some special attention. So this is the year.

While doing dishes (like I seem to do a lot) I was thinking about how much cleaning and laundering I have to do every day.  When is there a break?  When is the best time to clean?  I started to think about the purpose of it all.  I used to make my kids go play while I clean.  Only to do that the next day and the next day.  Then I would go to sleep at night and wish I had spent more time with my kids.  Reading to them, asking them about their day, play something with them, or just talk to them. 

Time flies so fast.

Finally, I came to the conclusion that I am doing all this for them.  Sure, I could have had just one kid and my cleaning would have been much simpler.  What am I doing all this for?  I realized how much I truly enjoy my kids and I just didn't have enough time with them it seemed.  I'm living for them.  They are my joy and the highlight of my day.

They are the sweetness around me.

I decided that any cleaning I had to do would HAVE to be done before they come home every day from school.  Except for washing dishes and wiping down the kitchen after dinner, everything else would have to be finished for that day.  No more folding clothes at night or waiting till they sleep to clean.  They are in school this year so the habits will have to change again.  If I'm doing all this for them, then when they come home, my husband and my kids will have my attention.

If I were to be laying on my death bed and someone were to ask me if I could have done things better.  I KNOW I won't say, "Well, I wish I would have had a cleaner house."  I don't want to have to say "I wish I had not worried so much about my house while my kids were home with me.  I wish I would have read to them more.  Hugged them more. Listened to them more.  Cared more about looking through their backpack to discover their creations they made at school.  Wishing I had skated with them outside or at least watched them learn how to jump a ramp." 

So the next day, while washing dishes, I smiled and said, "This is a good plan."  If my life is revolved around my family then I should act like it.  Not just hope someday I get around to it. 

It has been fun spending my evenings with them, reading to them, playing hide and seek.  Spending those few hours with them I get each day.  I know if I want to have a relationship with them when they are older, it is important to establish it with them when they are younger. Plus, they can be so much more fun sometimes that adults.

Besides, what adult thinks its so fun to blow bubbles in their chocolate milk?  Kids love it.