go green / gorgeous kitchen via revelment
lots of time spent in the kitchen yesterday. i told dan the other day that i love cleaning my kitchen way more than i ever have. this is shocking. why would i have grown to like the daily grind of kitchen duty, i wonder. have i finally matured and owned up to the fact that doing dishes is a daily (if not, three or four times daily, more if you make your family a healthy meal!) required task? (so why moan and groan about it?) or could it be because i don't have a tv anywhere near the kitchen, so i'm not pulled in the direction to just sit and veg out to ellen? or maybe because it's a house and not an apartment, so i feel some sort of housewifery ownership over it? not sure; but i'm glad.
i'm glad i've finally succumbed to the feeling of satisfaction that comes with sucking up crumbs underfoot with my nozzle vacuum hose attachment. you have no idea how happy i was to change my vacuum bag after the holidays. (it was stuffed to the gills, like santa's pack on christmas eve.) all those pine needles; all those party crumbs; all that clean-up. i felt some sort of strange accomplishment which, i assume, only a woman can understand. guys just get the job done and move on. ladies like me revel in knowing that this task completed is a giant black mark slicing through words on a carefully written to-do list.
and isn't it funny how madly you clean a house before guests arrive and five minutes later it's a complete wreck!? (dan always jokes with me, reminding me we haven't invited the queen to our house.) chocolate cake crumbs, ice cream melted on the tablecloth, dirty dishes piled high. but laughter is abounding and kids are playing and you have this feeling of ahhh. that was fun. we should do it again. making the mess (and eventually cleaning it up) was worth it. and yet, here i am again, cleaning my kitchen. and there i will be, tomorrow, doing it again. i guess i've finally gotten over thinking i wish it would just stay clean. because it won't. because we are living here. and living here means making messes. and if it were always, always clean, then that would mean there ain't a lot of living going on which would make me super sad. so, i'm over it. and i'm counting my blessings. i have a kitchen to clean. and people–better yet, a family–who help me dirty it up and even a little one who leans over (tip-toed on his stool) to wash his own dishes. we have hot water and bubbly soap and a dishwasher and no mice or cockroaches (add the no mice or cockroaches part to any statement and you'll realize how lucky you feel)! it's a simple thing, but a happy thing. and i'm learning to appreciate the cycle; super clean. tidy. unclean. messy. crazy dirty. sleeves up. apron on. mopping and wiping and scrubbing and sorting. shiny plates out, sloppy plates in. a heap of dirty dish towels, the vacuum unplugged and a sack of garbage tied into a neat knot is my personal job well done.
other random tidbits // do you have an old-fashioned egg beater? i highly recommend having one. they make scrambled eggs a cinch. not that whisking yolks is all that hard; but something about the wheel and beater mechanics makes it all the better. my kid loves it. in fact i let him whir water and cinnamon and salt together all morning long. have i mentioned he loves creating concoctions. he even said, mom you go clean and i'll keep baking. monday should be declared our cleaning day. but usually when i declare something, it doesn't ever end up happening like it should. so i quit that habit long ago. i even busted out the blind cleaner gadget. do you have one of these? i picked ours up at home depot awhile back and am finally getting around to actually using it. dusting blinds is right up there with watching paint dry, but this little gadget does help. a wee bit. so there are my two tiny recommendations; an egg beater and fuzzy wuzzy blind cleaner. so, there's that. oh one more. yoga pants from costco. i am a believer.
p.s. i just discovered tinkerlab, thanks to pinterest, and am all motivated to get back to (intentionally) providing homegrown preschool projects for benj. we're off to purchase some foam sheets and sparkly pom poms for our art supply bin. what is more fun than being three and getting to egg-beat cinnamoney salt water and glue sparkly pom poms onto construction paper?! do you have any kiddo activities and/or awesome kitchen gadgets i should know about?
