"Free time"

With Lottie and Dallas both in preschool, you're probably wondering what I'm doing with all of my free time.  Ha.

First of all, it's not exactly "free" time.  As anyone knows, houses don't run themselves.  I normally have to sneak in cleaning and laundry when the kids are otherwise occupied; if I don't, I get a lot of unsolicited help.  And by help, I mean the opposite of help.  I also don't have copious amounts of time.  Dallas is only going to school in the mornings, so I have between 8:30 AM and 11:30 AM to get things done, travel time not included.  That's not a huge amount of time, people.  Now before you roll your eyes, I'm not complaining about the lack of time I have alone.  I know that in just a few years, I'll be alone all day long and missing my kids a lot...maybe.  And despite popular belief, I'm not sitting around on the couch, watching my stories, and eating my bon-bons.  Au contraire.

In the hours I have to myself, I have been organizing the house, and I love it way too much.  The sense of accomplishment I get after cleaning out or organizing just one drawer makes me realize that I either need a hobby or to see a shrink to work on my self-esteem.  I mean, that's nutty, right?  Nutty or not, it feels really good to be getting the house back into shape.  Although, honestly, I'm not sure it was ever truly in shape from the first.  When we moved it, Lottie was only 11 months old, and within one month of moving in, I was pregnant with Dallas.  Not a heck of a lot was getting done for a while.  Now I have some time to breathe and take stock of what has happened to my house, and I don't like it.  I don't feel like I can really relax and have fun with the kids while things are falling out of the hall closet or clothes are spilling out of drawers.  I enjoy working on projects while the kids are gone so that I can enjoy spending time with them when they're home.  It's not fair to them that I get twitchy every time I pass a pile of laundry. although technically, the amount of laundry is sort of their fault.  That's the only reason that I wish I had a couple of more hours to get work done as well; once I'm on a roll, it's hard to stop.  I have a feeling the staff at Good Shepherd Day School is going to get used to me running in at 11:31 PM, covered in sweat and dust, with a rag tucked into my back pocket.

So far, I have cleaned and organized Lottie's room and Dallas's room; I have gone through all of their clothes; I have cleaned and organized the mudroom and the front hall closet; I have cleaned the screened porch; and I have begun to go through all of the books in our library/office.  Once the books are done, our bedroom and our closets will get the treatment. The basement is going to be a huge project, so I'll probably save that for the winter months.  By and by, I'm going to get my house clean and keep it clean or at least clean enough that I don't start to shake uncontrollably at the thought of friends just dropping by.