Okay, I failed – mostly. I did not write yesterday. But I did write today! For 20 minutes instead of 10 to make up for yesterday. I’m becoming rather pleased with the progress in the rewrite and am beginning to have rather high hopes for it. But I am sure you are curious as to why I didn’t write yesterday.
Well, I actually had a pretty good excuse. I was in meetings most of the day and then we started spring cleaning! We were cleaning right up until we fell into bed with exhaustion – and only completed one room.
For those of you who don’t know, spring cleaning is a far bigger event than most people realize. At least, PROPER spring cleaning is. Because it involves moving all furniture and scrubbing or vacuuming behind it, wiping all baseboards, washing all walls (and using Mr. Clean sponges on the stubborn marks), unloading all cupboards and pantries to wipe them out and re-load them, and, the most important part, scrubbing all hard floors on hands and knees. Yes, hands and knees. I’m sorry, but no matter how good modern mops are, they still do not do what scrubbing with your own two hands will do. My husband didn’t believe me until the first time we did it. Ever since he saw the water after scrubbing a supposedly clean floor, he’s a huge advocate of proper scrubbing twice a year. And of course, washing all curtains and dust ruffles and rugs.
And if you don’t believe me, you should try it – just once – do proper spring cleaning and you will be stunned by how much dirt you actually get up, how much work it is, and how much you love the feeling once it is all done. It’s all that gets us through that 4 or so days of cleaning – the memory of how it feels once it is done. Of course, having a pitcher of margaritas on hand for last night while cleaning also helped, but that is neither here nor there.
Good luck to all of you who are also conducting spring cleaning!
Forest Idylls 