The Inadvertent (Intermittent?) Housekeeper

This is Ellie playing with her new "telescope." About a month ago I caught her walking out of the kitchen with a mostly full roll of paper towels. I stopped her and told her that those were for cleaning, not playing. She turned back, looked at me and said, "Sorry about this, Mommy. I'm so, so sorry about this, Mommy," and then continued walking out. Wait--what? I stopped her again and told her she could have one paper towel to play with and promised her the telescope inside once the roll was empty. She just now finally got her telescope. Does it seriously take me that long to go through a roll of paper towels? Part of me would like to think it's because I'm so environmentally conscious, but another part of me suspects I just don't really clean the windows or mirrors enough, let alone other messes around the house.

Don't be alarmed. The house is sanitary enough. I'm no fanatic, but I have my limits on what I will tolerate. I try to keep order, and get a good routine going for a while, and then my back goes out, or we all get sick and the routine goes out the window and we go into survival mode. I find an orderly house comforting, a broad expanse of newly vacuumed carpet soothing, a kitchen with all the dishes put away relaxing, and a tidy bathroom is so pleasant. But I also know my limits of health and energy and kids the ages mine are. So we do our best. 

I mean well, with a list of to-do's every day. Sometimes I feel bad for not getting to everything on the list, until I realize just how much I actually do get done every day, just not the things on the list. Who plans to scrub a 15-month-old's scribbles off the walls, or sop up the spilled liquid hand soap-turned-skating-rink on the bathroom floor (the three-year-old's ingenious idea) when they get up in the morning? Or who can forget this lovely spill? One time while I was scooping up a pile of Cheerios that Ellie had spilled all over the living room floor, the thought actually crossed my mind to just leave it there since Charlie seems to prefer to eat things off the floor than off his plate. Maybe I'll just sprinkle green vegetables behind me as I vacuum next time.

Someday my house will be perpetually tidy. People will drop by unannounced and it will look like I was just sitting there waiting for them to come over and inspect. In the meantime, I will start the day with a blank to-do list and fill it in as I go and see just how much housekeeping I actually get done during a day, rather than how much I don't get done. That or get the kids to only spill Cheerios on the floor on Mondays and Thursdays when I plan to vacuum, spill juice in the kitchen on Saturday when I was going to mop anyway, and save wetting the bed for laundry day. (Oh, who am I kidding? Every day is laundry day.)