Love, Laughter, and Messy Houses.

After a long day of cleaning (dusting and all) you can finally see my headboard!

So the other night, I was laying in bed struggling to fall asleep. All I could think about was how much stuff I needed to get done. If you are a stay at home mom to multiple children, you know what I'm talking about. The never ending abundance of laundry, the endless amount of dirty dishes, the trash that is over flowing because for some reason you're the only one that seems to notice it. Not to mention all the other cleaning that just doesn't seem necessary after doing laundry and dishes for hours on end. I mean honestly, who wants to vacuum every room, and dust every ceiling fan after they just spent an entire day folding clothes, then refolding clothes because their toddler insisted on "helping?" Not me! I always say "oh I'll scrub the toilets on Tuesday" or "is it completely necessary to get the oven sparkling clean today, I mean who looks in the oven anyway?"
I know I say this every single year but I really do need to make a cleaning chart. Right now my cleaning schedule is pretty simple. On Sunday I spend almost the entire day cleaning. I literally try to get all my cleaning done in one day. It's impossible. It's exhausting. It's stupid. You may be thinking "well what the heck does she do the rest of the week, and why Sunday, isn't that supposed to be a day of rest?" Let me explain. Sunday, is the only day my husband has off work, so he is here to help keep the kids entertained while I do work on the house. And usually he is sweet enough to spend his one day off helping me conquer my least favorite part of cleaning... dishes. Oh how I hate doing dishes! The rest of the week is spent potty training. Yes, it has officially taken over my life. Potty training is no joke.
Don't get me wrong, I do other stuff too. Not a day goes by that I'm not walking around picking up dirty clothes and tossing them in baskets. I'm also apparently the only one that can see hampers around here too. Of course, I take out the garbage when need be. Which, let's face it, is a lot. In order to keep down on polluting our precious planet, I do my best to recycle. That's no walk in the park either, just cans alone can be extremely time consuming. Way more than I ever imagined. But it's worth it. I started recycling cans about 6 months ago and since then I have made a whopping $24. I have another load ready to go to the recycler now, which will be another $12 at least. I know it's not much but the most important thing is that I'm making a difference. Every single can recycled makes a difference, and I don't know about you but I want to leave a better planet behind for my children and grand children. Also, when you think about it. I'm making about $6 a month so at the end of the year I will have made a little more than $70 on something that I was originally going to throw away anyway. That's $70 I can put towards Christmas gifts for my children, or reward myself with a mini shopping spree.
Now bare with me here, but if you really want to think about the BIG picture. Say I take that $70 and put it in saving. Every year I put all my can money in savings and don't touch it. After 18 years that's almost $1300 and that doesn't even include the amount of interest it would collect after all that time. But forget the interest, that is  $1300 that I can put towards my children's college fund. Now, I know that $1300 isn't a whole lot of money but it would make a difference. It could pay for books or supplies needed for their dorm. I have 2 kids so that means they would only get about $650 each. BUT, bare with me again. Imagine the possibilities. Think bigger!! Dream bigger!! I get $12 every time I take cans, which is every 2 months. So say I double it. I get $12 from the cans so I put that in savings plus $12 of my own money. So instead of having $70 at the end of the year I now have $140 to either keep saving or spend on something special. If you decide to save it for college in 18 years you'll have a little over $2500 and that doesn't include the interest you'd get from the bank. See what I mean? The possibilities are endless. Imagine if at the end of the year you took that $140 that was in your savings and you doubled, say with your tax money or something. Every year you could put another $140 from your personal account into the savings so it would go from $2500 in 18 years to $5000. I think you get the point. Every little bit of savings makes a difference.
Anyway, I went on this can rant to point out that although to others it may not seem like I do much all day. But when you look at the big picture I'm making a world of difference for my children's future. They won't remember the messy house or my messy hair. They are going to remember the love and laughter in our home, and I hope that is what your children remember in yours.