Be Careful What You Wish For

...or "Be Careful for What You Wish"... for all the English majors out there. :)

I am just about finished with Major Purge 2009, a.k.a. "How much stuff do I really need?" Unfortunately, the rest of the house has suffered along with the areas being torn apart and reorganized. We could barely walk through the hall amidst the bags of trash, donations, and things that needed to go to other rooms. Add the mountains of laundry (which I was behind in doing) in the same hall. Plus the kitchen federal disaster area--because I was so busy trying to put the rest of the house back together, I kind of forgot that dishes need to be done every few hours or they grow exponentially. We'd also had to take down our bedroom curtains so that our fogged window could be replaced, which gave me a great opportunity to wash them (and iron, and rehang). Top that off with all the messes from repotting my houseplants, and all the dirt from Miss M (and friends) playing outside and coming inside and going back outside and coming inside... My house was not a pretty picture. And mentally, I have a hard time functioning in chaos.

I spent today trying to put my life/house back together again. I took a break to attend our Saturday evening session of Stake Conference, which is always a treat, but meant I had piles waiting for me when I got home. I worked as quickly as I could, but had an interruption for the spider crisis. Miss M was absolutely terrified of a large spider in the house, which my husband missed catching the first time...and Miss M went into hysterics when she found it later. My husband caught it on the second try, and put it in her frog terrarium, which he had to take outside to the garage because she couldn't stand the spider that close to her in her room. I stopped cleaning for a while to calm her down. (We are happy to report that the spider was eaten around 11:30 pm tonight. Miss M can sleep peacefully now.)

With the kids in bed, I was finally vacuuming the stairs around 11:15 pm. As I did the chore, wishing I could be in my clean, comfortable bedroom, I remembered how I felt when we lived in an apartment and would soon be moving into our house. I recalling thinking how wonderful it would be to be able to vacuum at 11 pm if I wanted. As I lived the dream, I wondered why I ever thought vacuuming at 11 pm would be a good thing.

I realized I need to be more careful what I wish for.