Boomer Ponders the Value of Cleaning

In my opinion, my house is an absolute mess.    We are redoing the kitchen so there's a constant presence of dusty footprints, a constant settling of dust on the furniture and a constant smell from having to put the cat's litter pans in the dining room while the entrance to the basement is blocked.    I've taken to walking through the house with a dust cloth in my hand.  And I've bought every kind of kitty litter odor fighter on the market in addition to a few air freshener aids.    My Darling Daughter (aka Teen) believes I'm obsessive about cleaning.

This observation, unfortunately, is very inaccurate.  I am not a neat person.  Up until the kitchen redo, pulling out the vacuum cleaner more than once a month was rare.    Last week I finally got on my hands and knees and cleaned the bathroom floor.  I have no recollection of when I did that last.

The Darling Daughter observation came on the heels of my vacuuming in HER room.   I have been advised by many, including DD herself, to stay clear of a teen's room.   Her idea of cleaning is picking clothes off the floor and dumping them into the hamper.  And most of the time, I'm okay with that.    But once in awhile my inner "mom" comes out and I just have to get the vacuum cleaner going.

I remember my mom as a vacuuming crazy lady.  We (meaning brothers and dad) would be watching TV on a Saturday and next thing you know...vroom, vroom.  There goes mom vacuuming in front of the TV.  We'd all groan and complain, but she'd keep at it until she was done.    I recall a time when she was so aggravated with me about my room that she dragged me into my bedroom to give me a lesson in how to make my bed.  To this day I always make sure I'm doing "hospital corners" on the sheets.  A lesson given in anger sticks I suppose.   My friends remember how nice and neat she kept things.  So compared to my mom, I fall far short of obsessive cleanliness.

My mom and I do share the same attitude about cleaning up for company.  Company creates both obligation and motivation.   My Hubby and Darling Daughter do not share in this feeling, particularly when the company is related, so shake their head when I start ranting and raving about the condition of the house.  Their philosophy is "it's family...family doesn't care about those things."  My philosophy is that a clean house is a sign of respect for your guests.  And I appreciate entering a clean house when I am invited to their place.   But here's why I'm not obsessive about it.  It's clean when they arrive, but I don't spend time cleaning up behind everyone throughout the visit.    I do like to enjoy my visitors.

As proof of my non-obsessiveness, it's Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and I've not touched a surface in this house.    But I do need to get the Teen out of bed sometime soon.  A little Vroom, vroom should work.

Letting Go

When I was pregnant with Daughter (aka Teen) I worried like most new moms-to-be do. Did she kick today? Is she growing okay? Is she healthy? I distinctly remember a co-worker saying, "and after she's born, you'll just keep worrying."

I have this big crease down the center of my forehead as proof that I have indeed continued to worry. Just the other day Daughter asked if she could attend an all-day rap festival. This sent shivers down my spine. A rap festival? You mean like gansta' rap? Apparently not. This is an "indie" rap festival. That's supposed to make me feel better. I went on line and searched for anything I could learn. When I saw a video from last year's festival showing a performer rapping about walking around Minneapolis lakes, I decided to take the chance and let her go.

She's going to a marine biology camp this summer. She'll be snorkeling and diving in the ocean. With sharks. And possibly other things with sharp teeth. I don't swim, but we made sure she did so she could do just these kinds of things I never could. But I'd feel better if her father was swimming alongside. When she asked, I was ready to say no, but Hubby intervened so we're letting her go to that too. He'd like to have a diving partner someday I think.

Letting her go. Don't you just hate those words?

Teen Working on Time Management

It's amazing to me how much kids do these days. For the past several weeks and through next week Teen is part of the pit band for the school musical. She likes it but it makes getting homework or anything else done quite difficult. This week is particularly bad as she is practicing till 9:30 at night or later.

This is requiring some new tactics in time management. Last week she needed help getting definitions for geography vocabulary, basically looking the words up and writing the definitions on a card. When approached I said "I'll do it, but looking up and writing down the definitions is part of the learning process." She disagreed with that until her father said I was right. (Hubby is the last word on all things educational around this house despite the fact that I too attended high school at one time in my life.) So she agreed to wait and see whether she could handle it then if not come back. She came back. No big deal, mostly busy work.

Then last night, after a 10:00 p.m. pick-up from pit band practice, Teen was stressing about a special project due on Monday: the history of the Golden Delicious Apple and its role in saving mankind. That's what the questions sounded like to me anyway. She didn't ask, but I could see she was once again using her new time management tactic, get mom to help, only this time waiting for me to volunteer. I'm a wimp. I did.

So today I looked up anything I could find on the Golden Delicious apple, bookmarking anything that looked remotely relevant to the salvation of mankind. In particular I hunted for information on Johnny Appleseed because Teen is convinced there is no historical context to him and scoffed at me when I brought it up. (Remember that I am not the educational guru of the house, so what do I know.) I am happy to report that Big John was indeed based on a real person and can be tied back to the history of the Golden Delicious. So there.

So far her new time management system appears to be working. Too bad Hubby is out-of-town because now my system is breaking down.