I'm Just Gonna Do It

I am blogging fairly early this morning. I have a ton of errands to do - from getting new tires put on my van, to getting it inspected to going grocery shopping and finding a gift for my husband's grandmother's 94th birthday! I hate going grocery shopping without organizing and wiping down my refrigerator. It is one of those things that I just can't make myself do. Coming home with a ton of things to put away to a dirty fridge is just gross. I am also like that about the dishes - I can't leave for the day with dishes in the sink or an unmade bed. My mom kept our house like a museum - and seldom wanted it to look like people actually lived there - and it is a battle that I fight every day. I don't really know how to live in my house. I am trying. I thought I would start with going grocery shopping without tidying my fridge......
.......well maybe just one little shelf.......or the door........ooh maybe I'll just organize the drawers

I'm hopeless.

Deep Cleaning Thoughts

My brother-in-law has been visiting since Friday, and there is no limit to intriguing conversations. It has drained the little piece of my brain that I save for blogging. However, I was thinking this morning about my friend Renee's post about how she was trying to relax her housekeeping and let the home be more relaxed on this long holiday weekend. I am not good at the "relaxing" thing. In fact this morning I knew I was being intrusive to my husband and his brother as they were sitting at the computer looking at something together, but the carpet had gotten so cruddy that I couldn't stand it one second longer and I had to vacuum it, right then! I make my children make their beds every day, I hate a sink full of dishes, and I can't stand for the bathroom sink to be covered with "stuff". Clutter on horizontal surfaces like the counter or table bugs me, and I have to sweep the floors in the house at least every other day or they drive me nutty with stuff sticking to my feet. However, I do not make anyone take their shoes off at my house, people may put their feet up if they like, and I try in most other ways to keep life easygoing around here. I grew up in a house that was like a museum - there were no signs that people actually lived in most of the house. I tend toward that but fight it with all that is in me. I know that if children are worried about making a mess that it stifles creativity. But, I also know for me that the clutter is distracting. I am trying to strike a happy medium.
In light of this post - take a minute to take the poll on my sidebar to the right. It will be interesting to see how others respond to this question.

You know you have OCD when....

.....you can't concentrate while doing your quiet time in the morning because you notice dust around the edge of the living room rug, you can't write a blog entry because while pouring your coffee you noticed that the stove top desperately needs windex-ed, and when you're brushing your teeth you are so distracted by the Ty-d-bowl blue of the slight leak on the floor at the back of the toilet that you jam your toothbrush into your gums! This was my morning. I had to STOP EVERYTHING and do some house-cleaning. I don't think of myself as a "clean freak" -but I like things a certain way - and when they aren't it drives me nutty. While I am being so candid about my neurosis - let me tell you that my worst ever episode was one night when irritated by the bed covers that were twisting a strangle-hold around my legs, I ripped all of the covers off of my sleeping husband and remade the bed around him! Obviously there is an issue here - but since there is no chance I will be living in a white rubber room all by myself anytime soon - I and those that love me will just have to learn to live with it! Besides - I would be distracted by the blank walls and silence! There's no hope!

Oh yeah, and when I was windex-ing that stove - I noticed a button that says "speed bake". Any idea what the heck that thing is? Freaks me out. I mean, why don't they just put a button on there that says "Burn". I guess I'll have to figure out where I put the owner's manual and do some reading up.