Spring Cleaning

This weekend I did the kind of cleaning one only does when they know a social worker is coming for a visit. (You adoptive parents know exactly what I'm talking about ) It's the kind of cleaning that has me scrubbing baseboards with a toothbrush and washing my walls. Not that I wouldn't do these things at some point in the spring anyway. Because, with four kids in the house my walls ought to be washed every month but I do them every six. (yummy!) As we (that's me and the four year old -soon to be five) did our work happily I pondered whether or not this kind of cleaning was a type of deception. Would it constitute as lying? I mean anyone who truly knows me knows my house never looks this clean. They know I'd love for it to always look this clean but, as I've said before and will repeat once again, I want to be a neat freak when I grow up, the only problem is that the Lord has locked me in a home with five unrepentant slobs. (Well, after yesterday's wall washing there's hope* for the four year old.)

My loving husband cleaned up the front & back yards for me this weekend. Upon completion I have to admit that aside from mowing the lawn and blowing leaves much of the stuff that was cluttering up our back patio has just been shifted around in various little piles instead of the big messy pile we had before. In his defence we are remodeling and all our storage is filled with cabinets and other building materials. Leaving no room for items like the wet/dry vacuum, folding chairs, etc. All of which are still hanging out on the patio, causing me to twitch every time I look out the window. I'm hoping I can use diversionary tactics to prevent the Social Worker from looking out into the back yard. I'll let you know how that works out.

I have a story to tell you. I Facebook. And I'm a flake**. The combination isn't always good. You know that little line where you can update your status? Well, famous typo queen that I am, I wrote a little blurb and sent it off into the world without ever spell checking it. The responses came rolling in. Seems I typed "Hubby is building me a powder bathroom sized panty" instead of PANTRY. So, I am now referring to the new pantry as "our big panty". You'll be happy to know that the panty is coming along nicely. It now has a door which can be shut so that the social worker cannot see that the interior remains to be drywalled and textured. Or that Hubby has stored*** all his tools in there.

Any of you who ever plan to stop by for a visit should do it this week, so I can impress you, too, with my clean home. It's now or never people. I'm barely holding it together. It's just gotta last until Wednesday. That's when the Social Worker comes for our three months post placement visit. She's a new social worker. Never met her before. I'll keep you updated about that as well.




*You should have heard me trying to brainwash that child. "Mommy is so happy to have such a great cleaning partner! Do you love to do this with mommy? Isn't it so great to have such a clean house. You are wonderful at this! When you grow up you're going to keep your home nice and clean aren't you?"
** I don't say that to be mean. It's just a fact I've come to accept about myself. It's the way God made me. I assume it has something to do with humility. Something I am forcefed by the fistful on a regular basis.
*** "stored" is code for dumped