hillDown Day

It's day 3 of Spring Cleaning! Halfway done! I thought this week would be really long and hard, but I'm actually really enjoying it. It IS hard work and I end each day completely drained and ready to collapse into bed, but it's with the satisfaction of knowing how much we accomplished (since I'm making the girls help) in the day, and how good the house is looking. It's fun working with the girls, too -- I noticed that yesterday when we were all washing the windows together. This is part of what we accomplished yesterday:

Dusting, scrubbing, vacuuming, and general fluffing of the living room and dining room. While I had all the furniture in disarray to vacuum every square inch of the carpet, Miriam suggested (in between jumping from one item of furniture to another) moving the furniture around. We've never had this layout before, so I decided to try it. At first I hated it and planned to put everything back, but by the end of the day it had already grown on me. It takes me a while to adjust to change. :) There's not quite as much open area for the kids to run around in, but this layout does make it seem more cozy for some reason.

The girls loved it when the house was in total disarray. After we dragged all the dining room chairs into the kitchen and lined them up, the girls were pretending they were sitting in pews at Mass and getting ready to "receive Jesus". (although they kept breaking into hysterical giggling fits) I remember having fun with all the chairs lined up in the living room when Mom mopped the kitchen floor too. There's something magical about your ordinary everyday house being transformed into a different place.

Today I cleaned part of the basement. I didn't touch the utility room where our computer and laundry machines are -- I think that area would best be served with a shovel and/or a grenade. Mr. Pickles and I will need to take a whole weekend to sort and organize everything we've crammed in The Dungeon before I can fit a vacuum in there. How did we ever accumulate so much random crap? I don't even know what half of it is. But the living space is all pristine now, yay! I even organized the DVDs and vacuumed the hearth. Go me!