Well, I did it. My time off is almost over and I have tamed the dirty house monster. With some help from my children, I knocked him over the head with a vaccuum cleaner, put him in a tight headlock and now he's under my control on a leash! He's been bugging me for a long time. He has little clutter goblins that follow him around but they don't bother me so much. It's just him. For awhile now he's been telling me how bad I am and making me feel shameful. Not anymore my self confidence is high. Whew and I'm not overwhelmed by my house anymore. Now if we can just keep it all organized life will be good.

It took some doing but I stuck to the cleaning schedule I wrote to you a few blogs ago. Everyday I cleaned well the room on the list. Our vaccuum cleaner messed up three times but we got it going again. My sons probably took out 10 extra bags of trash. Our boys were surprised when they saw their room. They thanked me. I probably did three loads of laundry a day. Sam helped me fold them. All our clothes are organized now. A few tears were shed when Ginny saw some of the clothes and toys I tried to sneak away. If she gave me a good reason I went ahead and let her have them back. I sucked up a whole lot of tiny shiny red tinsel hearts that Ginny scattered around as she played with them over time. Those things look cute sprinkled around a centerpiece on a dinner table but I got sick of vaccuuming them up. Legos and megablocks, they look the same to me but there's a big difference. Just ask Benjamin. Those were also all over and took some time to collect. There were also many pens, pencils and silverware found under couches, chairs and beds. I mainly worked on our big cleaning project but I made sure I had plenty of help anytime I needed it.

My home isn't spotlessly clean but it sure feels good when as a Mom I've got things organized again like I want them:)