Bean feet

There's only one thing I hate more than having stuff stick to the bottom of my feet as I walk around my house, and that's wearing socks.  I hate socks with a passion.  In fact, back in the days when I met Reno it was not uncommon to see me barefoot in flip flops in the dead of winter.  Ok - maybe that wasn't such a smart idea, but you get the point.  I am NOT going to wear socks in my house just to avoid having stuff  stick to my feet.

Why do I have stuff sticking to my feet, you ask?  Well because I have 4 children and 2 dogs, silly!  That seems to make sense, doesn't it?

Maybe not, but I'm rolling with it.

I am not the cleanest person in the world.  While I do find it fairly therapeutic while performing the actual cleaning, I do not enjoy the feeling I have when 30 seconds afterwards, there is a tiny being with a shoe full of sand standing at my door needing to pee.  "No - don't take your shoes off... just come in -  quick!  BEFORE you pee your pants.".  In my mind, it is better to sweep the dirt than to wipe the pee.  And so it begins and so it continues.  To keep from feeling that sense of disappointment in those around me for not sharing in my desire for cleanliness and to avoid having to hound and remind everyone in every sentence spoken, I just don't put that kind of standard out there for my house.  Truthfully, there are many things I would rather do than clean.

I distinctly remember my mother on the night of the get-together before our wedding, turning to Reno's mother and saying, "I don't know where she gets her lack of cleaning skills from!", and then profusely apologizing for the state of our townhouse.  I also remember thinking it really wasn't that bad.  We were working and going to school and trying to take the time to spend with our kids on a one on one basis.  That balance is certainly not easy and when the time comes that you have a moment that isn't consumed with one of those items, I chose a little personal time.  Looking back on the pictures, I see what she meant.  We have come a long way since then, but we still aren't good at it.

I'm feeling very under the weather today, but when I couldn't find a place to sit on the couch that wasn't consumed by a mound of clothing, I decided to fold and put some clothes away.  I sat on the floor and folded and sorted and stacked and folded and sorted some more.  Four full laundry baskets later, I was finally done...

Ah time to relax and kick my feet up and WHAT IS ON MY FEET???  How did I miss the fact that I had a Star Wars sticker, a smushed green been, and a whole lot of sand stuck to one foot?  I briskly peel each item off and return it to it's rightful place... on the floor.

Time to sweep, I suppose.  Bare in mind I swept the whole house just 3 days ago, so it's not like it's been that long (is that too long??).

This is the pile I made.

And yes, those are toys in the pile... and a bean... and a pair of socks, but you know what???  I don't care.  They can go in the garbage because I am not wasting my time sorting through the pile I sweep up because somebody else didn't clean up after themselves.

And there you go folks.  Now you have delved into the depths on page one of "My Messy House" and survived.

Now just to watch who wears socks on their next visit... ;)