Love on your Side

One of my favorite 80's bands are the Thompson Twins. I even saw them in concert at the U of U when I was in junior high. They will not go down in history as any type of earth shaking musicians who changed society. They wrote frothy little pop concocations that make me want to shake my booty whenever they come on the radio. Since I've been using the NOBX radio app on my phone a lot, I've been listening to WfNX & WXPN, which means I have the booty shaking urge at least once a day. Out of that whole oeuvre, my favorite Thompson Twins song is Love on your Side.
That being said, yesterday was Valentine's day. It was my 17th Valentine's day with my husband (7th as a married couple). We didn't do anything different from what we normally do on a Sunday-church, lunch, nap, playing with the little man, dinner, bed. I did make an all red dinner for the boys-pasta with sauce (I had veggies sauteed in olive oil and garlic instead). And I made home made brownies from scratch-which actually didn't take a long time or was overly complicated-and they were quite yummy too.
The Little Man does not have school today, so I am taking the morning off. We're going to make our countdown to Easter poster this morning and I have a little housework to do. I need to do my home blessing as well as clean the kitchen, dining room, family room and foyer-mainly due to all that is going on this week. What has worked for me in keeping up with the house is breaking it into smaller chunks. Like usually, on Mondays I do the foyer and the living room which takes about 15 or 20 minutes to get the rooms dusted and polished. Tuesdays are for the dining room and kitchen (which takes a little bit longer just due to all the wood), Wednesdays are the bedrooms, Thursdays for the bathrooms and Friday is for the lower level (I seem to neglect the lower level though...that's the Big Man's domain). When I keep up with the house like this, I feel less stressed and its not really distracting me from anything else. Its like I rearrange my schedule at night a little-instead of plopping my butt on the couch after dinner, I just go over and clean a little-a swipe of a dust rag here & there, a little furniture polish, what not and life is good.
The other big thing that makes my life a lot easier is keeping up with the laundry. It really doesn't take much-other than changing my mind set-to do a few loads each day. I mean, my washer has a delayed start option, so there isn't any reason why I can't set it up to run over night and throw it in the dryer in the morning as well as set it up to run while I am at work. The next step (and in terms of doing whites, the hardest for me)is folding and putting it away. After cleaning out my closet and dresser, its much easier for me for me to put my laundry away. Next up will be to clean out the little man's dresser-he does have a lot of tshirts that don't fit him.
I realized that keeping the house clean and cooking dinners have a lot more to do with love than I ever thought they did. It makes our house much more homey...and helps add to the level of peace. I did go through a very dark period last fall right up until Christmas to be perfectly honest. I didn't feel like doing much of anything, and honestly there wasn't any reason for it. I think I was just tired and stressed out. I still am, but I am channeling that stuff in a different direction. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I am working on channeling that energy elsewhere (like PTO, church, etc). Having an organized pantry and linen closet (not to mention my own closets, etc) made me want to expand on that in my life. It made me want to take care of myself again. Its amazing how something that simple (cleaning out the pantry) caused such a chain reaction. It also has allowed me to be more open and loving to my family-if I am not stressed out all the time, I can do a lot more for them with a smile on my face and do a lot more willingly.
Its a change of perspective for me...do I do it because I am being punished or because I love my family? If I am doing all this because I love my family, its a different thought process. Its not me dragging my butt to get stuff done. Its not me being distracted by something else. Its me being focused on what needs to be done each & every day to keep our family and household running. Its not a punishment to have to scrub the toilet-its a blessing (because we have indoor plumbing!)
I am trying to teach our son that its important to do these things...its hard because he's never had to be responsible for things. I think at 7 he needs to start being responsible for at least keeping his room clean. The other issue we have is sitting down and doing homework. It works well when we sit down and do something every night, like from a work book or a print out from the web rather than only when we do have an assignment. I also like us doing a little craft project together, but that doesn't always happen. Its just like trying to teach him about religion and faith...when I take the time to reinforce what he did in Sunday School, it seems like he gets it more and really enjoys going. And he's more open to religious instruction...and that makes me happy. I guess because I'm so churchy I want my family to be the same way.
This morning I have laundry to fold, laundry to do, chicken to cook, tidying up to do (not to mention shower, dress and do all that for work)Now its time to show my family some love.