Quote of the Year

On Saturday, as we were cleaning the house, Noah said to me, "Mom, the longer I clean, the more I like it!"

Boy, was I happy to hear that! We had a nice routine going most of last year and into the summer. The kids and I cleaned house every morning together for about an hour. Of course, some of that time was spent corralling and much of it was spent teaching, but it really was a help for me. Noah and Amalie are both at a point where if they really try to clean, they really are a big help and things get done faster. Well . . . along came first grade and then baby Gabe and that schedule went out the window pretty fast. I am the personality that I cannot feel peaceful unless my house is fairly clean, so you can imagine how chaotic I felt those first few months of baby Gabe's life when I was barely coherent. I didn't have the brain power to corral my children into working like they used to. Well, on Saturday I decided that they needed to REALLY help me. Usually I just have them tidy up, but I was inspired to have them help me to the end. It was definitely very frustrating the first half hour. I had to keep them focused on the task, they would go to put something away and not come back, anyways, the longer we cleaned, the more they started to feel pride at what they were accomplishing. It was so fun to see them working so hard! And they felt incredible. I had them look at the clean house and see that this is what they had done. It was a pretty incredible feeling for them, I could tell. And a huge blessing for me, since I can use all the help I can get!