Household duties

If you have ever lived in the same town as me or, heaven forbid, the same apt/room, you are keenly aware that service (i.e. cleaning up) is not my spiritual gift or love language.  However, it became brutally clear to me at a recent marriage retreat (by the Lord, not my husband or the speaker) that I was being incredibly selfish by not taking care of my home.  I had a little "come to Jesus" meeting with God and He radically changed my perspective on keeping my home neat.  So, I immediately began a cleaning frenzy; organizing closets, cleaning out toys and dressers, Cloroxing the sink.  I was a machine.  It felt great!  Very quickly, however, reality set back in and the children begin to re-dirty all that had been cleaned.  Much like the blogging thing, this is typically when I would lose my gusto.  Fortunately, I have maintained a proper perspective on cleaning, I just don't have the  sparkling house of my dreams.

Mom and I have had many a discussion on the topic of including the children in household duties and I have made a few futile attempts at including them.  This morning I decided to bite the bullet and let them have at it.  So, I gave Thad a "special" cleaning cloth and demonstrated the proper way to clean the doors.  He worked diligently on removing the goo that has become a semipermanent fixture on both the storm and sliding glass doors, even braving the chilly temps outside to get both sides clean.  Hudson also chipped in by sweeping the eating area and helping unload the dishwasher.  Never mind the fact that Thad created as many fingerprints as he wiped away and Hudson simply scattered the crumbs further away from the eating area.  They contributed, without a fight.  They were proud of their work. I got to do some cleaning of my own while they were working.  Mission accomplished.  Now I must go wipe down the doors and sweep the floors while they are napping so they don't see Mommy coming behind them to finish the task..