Sunday, July 14, 2013

Cleaning house

I can't remember if I wrote about how our cleaners stole some money. It felt like I had just gotten used to them and how they cleaned, and how to work with them, and then it all had to end. M WH didn't want new cleaners, well because money was stolen. I was very sad. He thought we could do it and that we could get the girls involved. And that it would be good for all of us. I work a lot. I didn't really want to spend a few spare hours I had cleaning; however, we decided to try it.

It's been about four months now. At first, I hated it. Now, I do a deep clean on the kitchen about once a week. MWH and the girls do the vacuuming of the whole house. And every couple weeks we tackle cleaning the whole house in the deep clean way. I must say, I don't hate it as much as I thought I would.

Today, we all cleaned for 2 1/2 to 3 hours and the whole house is in pretty decent shape. I think the thing I am most happy with today is that the girls stuck with the cleaning. The girls are learning some useful cleaning skills and they are spending quality time with their parents. They are learning to work hard and not be entitled. When the cleaners first let go, the girls were very sad and really wanted new cleaners.

Now, while they don't like cleaning, they are getting decent about it. If they do everything I ask, they received $20 for their work. They are earning money and get the pride of a job well done. They still complain, but so do I, but we are all learning and working hard. It feels good. Though I wish I still had the cleaners, I am happy that I received the gift of spending more time with my kids and teaching them things they will use the rest of their lives. Thank you MWH for being wise and encouraging us to do this.


Tuesday, July 09, 2013

Moving...

We are finally moving!  I wrote about our new house here.  We were supposed to move last year, but we have THE WORLD'S SLOWEST contractor. We had one unforeseen problem in the house, but he has been so slow. At the beginning of June, this year, I went to, um, motivate him--I wanted to yell at him, but I was nice. However, he tried to blame the slowness on us. Whatever.  It was him. COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY HIM. Anyway, moving on (pun intended!), we're moving!

I just signed movers up for July 28th. The movers estimated we have 10,000 pounds of stuff.  It's less 'cause we're not moving an old couch, or an entertainment center. We are moving a treadmill and an exercise bike. I'm so thankful they will be moving those things and not me! Our new house is slightly bigger than our current house and because we won't move that couch, chair and entertainment center, we will have a very empty new house, but that's good! We'll get new stuff and fill it back up because that's the American way. I hope we don't get too much stuff, but we'll see.

Right now, I'm tossing articles from many years ago from work. I just tossed articles from research my dear, late friend and I had done together. It was hard to toss them, but there is very little possibility that I will work in that area again. It's too painful without my friend.

I just spoke to MWH and he agreed that I didn't need those old articles. We'll toss lots of stuff and with them, some of our memories of what happened. I know my Mom held on to some of the things she kept so that she would remember events. I hope I've done an okay job documenting here and on the other blog and now the food blog, too.

Oh, fun thing! I was interviewed by a reporter today because of my healthy eating blog. He knows it's not a hugely popular blog (I have like 20 viewers, most of whom are family, and I think I know all of them). He was interested in how social media helps me eat healthy and in what way it influences me. I like journalists and reporters.  They are right up there with librarians and teachers as some of my favorite types of people.