What Happened?

Okay, so I've never been what I would consider to be a "Martha Stewart". I do not grow my own Indian Corn in order to make miniature Indian Corn wreaths in the fall, nor do I have ginormous hydrangea bushes in my year that are beautiful shades of blue or lavender. I tried hydrangeas - I'm lucky if I get 3 petals a year - then last year Tyler broker half the branches off of one of the trees so his tractor would have something for the loader bucket. (Talk about pruning!)I am proud to say that I did subscribe to "Martha Stewart Living" for a couple of years, but let my subscription expire and plan not to renew it because reading that magazine just made me feel inadequate as a wife and a mother. (Come on, doesn't everyone celebrate Memorial Day on Nantucket Island eating homemade cherry tarts with dough shaped like stars on the top, wearing white sundresses to candlelight and fireflies?)

I used to consider myself a clean person though. Every Saturday morning I had a ritual where I would put in a movie - some randon, usually silly comedy from the 80s, 90s or early 2000s, and listen to it while cleaning the house. (Personal favorites are Groundhog Dog and the Wedding Singer.) This stopped in 2004. Funny enough - the same time we had Tyler.

Now, I would settle for picked up. Heck, I would settle for a floor. Or even better, a chair to just sit in at times without someone sitting on me, climbing on me or sitting on the end table next to me.

I called a couple cleaning companies to get quotes for them to come out and clean this place for us, but I just can't bring myself to do that. I guess I've figured out that I don't really care at this point. I get it generally sanitary, cleaning what is really dirty when it really needs it - and have figured out how to do that strategically. (Toilet cleaning when boys are in the bath, kitchen cleaning with Connor in the high chair, and turning vaccuuming into a game where Tyler "gets to help" if he's good). Everything else is good until I can see dirt, and then sometimes, I just pile crap on top of it so I don't have to see the dirt!

Our lives have really changed since having the boys, and I always say I wouldn't trade it for the world - and I wouldn't, although someday I might try the cherry tart thing - crack open my old Martha Stewart magazines and turn an old paper towel roll into a paint brush holder for my craft station. Maybe that will make up for all of the years of my inadequate house cleaning!

Sunday afternoon in the Stanfield House: (What you can't see in this picture is the row of waffle crumbs along the couch from Tyler eating his frozen waffle on the couch for breakfast that day.)