Home Making

This week's words are:

Button
Luck
Pretend


I can click a single button to make my thoughts heard in this virtual world. That is an amazing thought. One click and thousands of people have access to whatever I choose to share. That still astounds me. I have had a request to have a link to my "About Me" page put up and to have my archive links fixed, because for some reason they are being a pain. With any luck I will get that accomplished today. I'd like to pretend my housework is done, but it isn't quite yet. I have the three major rooms cleaned and hopefully the mini-muses will not tear them to pieces today, while I work to get their bedroom looking less like Katrina hit it, and more like a child's room. Oh wait... there's not much difference is there. O.k. I'll try to get it to look like a Martha Stewart version of a child's room.

Again my 3WW is being used as a regular blog entry. The truth is I'm dealing with hormone induced fatigue while trying to get my house squared away, and dealing with the frustration that I can't seem to get things accomplished quite as quickly as I used to be able to. I'm only 27, what right has my body to be this darned tired? I remember a few times that we've moved and I was able to work straight through and have the entire house unpacked and cleaned within 2 days... given that I had the motivation to do so. Now it's not so much a lack of motivation as it is a lack of energy and a lack of ability to stay focused as a by-product. So needless to say, 3WW is failing to produce a creative spark. Insha' Allah, next week it will.

The girl mini-muses are just about old enough to enlist as slave labor around the house. K bug is 7, and she already helps with things like picking up and sweeping floors. I haven't yet started her on how to wash dishes, but that will be something that she learns this year, and will become one of her regular chores. Oh yes, I condone child slave labor. It helps build character. *Evil Grin* If my mom hadn't kept me as busy with housework as she did when I was a kid, I would have gotten in a lot more trouble than I did manage to. There are three lessons my mom ingrained in me. 1) There are people in this world who love and care enough to fight for those who can't fight for themselves, 2) taking personal responsibility instead of giving justifications or shifting blame to someone or something else, and 3) how to put in an 8-10 hour day of hard physical and/or mental labor. She taught me much more than that of course, but for those three things I am incredibly grateful, and if these are things I can teach my own children, I think they will become well adjusted adults.

After all our job as parents is to prepare our children to leave us. That sounds kind of sad, but it really isn't. Our instinct is to hold tight and never let go. That is necessary while they are little, but the whole time we have them, our job is to train them to be able to survive and thrive in this world without us. And not that I don't still fall back on my mom sometimes. In fact without her helping with application fees and gas money until we got moved, I wouldn't be in school. But for the most part, she lets me alone to be on my own, and has no qualms about telling me no, if she believes that there is a lesson I need to learn, or other avenues that I need to work to explore before she assists me. She recognizes that there are times that everyone needs help, but she doesn't allow me as an adult to remain dependant on her support, save for that of the encouraging and loving variety. She's the kind of mom I want to be to my kids.

Jodi has made mention of something called FlyLady, for keeping a clean house. And now, I must ask her to share more. Besides child slave labor, what else can I do to keep my house regularly clean? This being said as the Boy Muse is pulling all of our DVD's off of the entertainment center shelf. *Sigh* That is my cue to run. I hope everyone has a great day, and as to Jodi's Question, I will have to ponder it over for the day. Perhaps it will be the theme for the first poem I write in the year 2008 tomorrow.

Oh and in the spirit of new beginnings, I've launched a new blog. It will be some time though before i have all of the aesthetics taken care of, so don't go judging too soon.