Hooray for Saturday!

My almost-two-year-old woke me up this morning at 6 sharp.  So much for sleeping in on the weekend.  What was funny is that I kept doubting whether it was the weekend, worried that I needed to get in gear for school and work.  I finally checked the date on the computer to put my mind at ease.  TGIS.

Not that weekends are really mini vacations for me anyway.  I have a veritable mountain of laundry to wash, dry, fold or hang, and put away (putting away apparently is the hardest step, as clean clothes tend to camp out on the living room couch until they’re used again).  Then I must tackle the normal cleaning and tidying before I can get to the necessary scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming.  I am determined to finally get my house in a condition acceptable for outsiders to see.  Plus, we need to get our lab pup accustomed to being inside the house (but not in her kennel), and we haven’t been able to so far because of all of the tempting items to chew lying around.

After the house is clean, assuming it is even possible to get it to that state today, I need to pull out the boxes of papers and such that we’ve continually piled and hidden whenever we have to do a quick clean-up.  Undoubtedly there are scores of important documents and other things to address in there, and our “out of sight, out of mind” technique is a sure way to get in trouble with bill collectors or the like.  So, once the kitchen table is cleaned off of any existing clutter, I get to dump stacks and stacks of paper on top of it and weed through the mess.  I cannot imagine the number of trash bags we will fill today.  That would be after one of us goes to the store to buy trash bags — we pulled the last one from the box last night.

Still, I am so relieved that it is Saturday.  The above to-do list nags me incessantly during the week, occupying every other thought and driving me crazy.  My husband is finally well enough to assist, though I’m not expecting him to be the one scrubbing the shower floor.  Still, he’s plenty capable of helping out the cause today, and my goal is to reach an acceptable plateau before dinner time, so tomorrow can act as more of a day off.  I have promised the girls we’ll go to Chuck E. Cheese with another mom and her two children, and I’d like to be a bit more carefree while I’m there.  (Did you know that Chuck E. Cheese is one of the very few kids’ activity places that serves beer?  Sure, you can only have one or two in the time that you’re there since you’re in charge of your children, but it definitely helps take the edge of amidst the screaming, ringing, whirring, dinging chaos.)

It’s 7:27 a.m. and I’ve had almost 6 cups of coffee and done two loads of laundry (they’re not folded yet, but I’m working on it).  The girls are playing happily, and my hubby’s still in bed.  He does get to sleep in on the weekends.  I don’t know the secret that moms who have perpetually clean houses keep, but I’m doing my personal best without running myself ragged right now.  I know that if I approach this in a fever pitch, I’ll crap out by lunch.  I’m hoping that a slower, marathon-like pace will keep me going until completion.  Regardless of the outcome, I’m still thankful for the weekend and its slightly less harried-ness.  As far as cleaning the house goes, I’m still longing for the day when we can afford a little domestic help.  This is just not my forté.