Yes, But Did You See How the Breadmaker Sparkled?

I am not a housekeeper! I am not sure I've made this proclamation recently on my blog. Suffice it to say, that keeping up with it is a major chore for me. DH helps out quite a bit. The boys are "OK" when they want to be. But none of us are neat-niks by a long shot.


Up until March of last year, my dear dear friend was my "Alice" (think Brady Bunch). E would come to my house for almost two hours daily and keep it up. She even did our laundry. And occasionally, she'd cook--just because she likes to do it and I really don't. In March she took on another family that had to have Hospice Care. This led to her finding her "life's work" as she is now caregiving for people who are in their last stages of life. And she loves it.

I am glad she is there for these families. But, if truth be told, I don't like this job. It pretty much cut us right out of the picture. For the first couple of months, we thought it was temporary. So we decided that WE'D keep up with it. And we did OK for a few months. But slowly and steadily, things and jobs started piling up.

I finally put out a "call" at work for a new "Alice". I got three names from friends there. The first one called me and told me that she is a "House Cleaning Fairy". She said that she would NOT open our oven, clean out the refrigerator, OR touch laundry. She told me that she was a "surface cleaner". I said, "I am in need of a 'House Fairy' PLUS." She politely told me that she was not the girl for us.

The second girl called and said she could do the job, but she wanted to do the job in five hour blocks. So two days a week my house would look wonderful...but the other five...well???? I told her I really valued the consistency.

The THIRD girl called, I asked her if she was a "House Cleaning Fairy PLUS" AND she answered, "If that's what you need, I'm your girl." I LOVE that answer.

Yesterday she came for a "walk through". I happened to be home with DS 4 yesterday and so I set about to tidy up a bit before she came. I started in the kitchen which needed some TLC. I don't know why, but I found myself scrubbing the inside of the breadmaker for almost 20 minutes. I washed things that sit on the plant shelf up top. It was a relatively DEEP clean when really I needed to be a "Surface Cleaner" all over the house.

I thought she was coming at 5:30, but we said 4:30. She showed up at 4:17 when I was in the middle of totally emptying out DS 4's room and cleaning it. There was a mountain of clothes waiting for laundry. Old toys bagged up for Goodwill. And other "Junk" all over the hallway floor. The cat had knocked over a plant in the living room and I had done NOTHING in there to remove any dust bunnies.

As you can imagine, my heart SANK when I heard the doorbell. Then I thought, "There's no time like the present to let her know what I need." I walked her around and thank goodness, she didn't run away. In fact, she said that she wanted the job and then she said that she'd take all the Goodwill stuff for her church that is working in a high need area in a neighboring city. I'm THRILLED that she's coming. I feel like she's an answer to my prayers.

After she left, I sat on the couch so I could see the house from her vantage point. There was the spill of the plant (which I had not seen until she came) and the dust on the table. There was a duster on the table waiting to get that dust. And then I thought, "You should have taken her to the kitchen." She really could have spent more time there seeing the sparkle.

I mean at least there, she could have seen that beautiful sparkling bread maker!