Daily Dose of Mama: Cleaning up my life

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Cleaning up my life

I have always struggled with keeping my spaces clean. I think it is a combination of bad habits and less structured cleaning and chores when I was younger (not to blame my mom in any way--this is my demon).

Anyway, I clean like I diet. Binging and purge, binge and purge. I let my spaces go until it's "go" time for something and then I really power clean the whole house spotless. I'm good at cleaning...when I do it.

So, tomorrow is our home inspection for our adoption. Just like last time, I have avoided cleaning until the last minute (tonight). I'll be up late, stressed out, and grumpy tomorrow. Great way to treat myself, yay me!

I notice a marked difference when I am in a clean space. I am happier, less anxious and stressed, and less "blue." I'm more creative and have more energy. I LOVE when my spaces are clean; it's just rare when that is the case.

Today I happened upon something called the Happiness Project. I can already tell this is a site that I would like to explore more fully, but the article about "de-cluttering" really caught my eye, in particular this quote:

Outer order contributes to inner calm.

So, so true, and something I have personally experienced on my own. I love to spout off to people about "being kind to yourself," but not allowing myself to live in a space that makes me comfortable is most decidedly not being kind to me.

So, with this as my new "homemaker" mantra, I'm going to see how long I can keep my spaces at a level of cleanliness that channels that inner calm (but doesn't totally stress out the working mom in me). This is a great time to start.

Because tonight I will be up until the wee hours of the morning cleaning like a crazy mad woman for that blank slate.

1 comment:

nancy and eric schwartzNovember 21, 2009 at 10:14 PM
Outer order contributes to inner calm...this is such a refreshing comment and I am so grateful for our routine...definitely less stress on me and more time to play, i believe in the inner calm when our space is in order. and i also like to use the saying...less is more. xo
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Thanks for your daily dose of you....

Everyday Mama

I'm a 32-year-old everyday mama. My husband (Appa) and I adopted our first son Little Bug (at 10 months old) from Korea in September 2008. We adopted our second son, Little Bro, from Korea in April 2011 at age 21 months. We adopted our third son,Little Moon, at age 3 in November 2013. I've wanted to be a mama for a long time, but I'm still trying to figure out the reality of it all and take time to enjoy the delicate beauty of the highs and the lows.

I worked full time as an editor, which I loved; but I made the bittersweet decision to stay home with my children after Little Bro came home. I'm now clumsily finding my footing in a new world of housekeeping, menu planning, budgeting, cooking, cleaning, and rainy-day activities, as well as navigating the world of IEPs, parent advocacy, and special needs education (spoiler: I suck at house work). My husband is hot and smart and quiet and loyal, and I think (know) my sons are the cutest, happiest little boys in the world.

I also struggle at times with mild depression, anxiety, post-adoption depression, my husband's constant absence due to his stressful and super time-consuming job, the challenges of helping my older son with his sometimes exhausting special needs, and our transition to a family of three little boys with just 19 and 14 months between them. I worry way too much about what people think of me, hate talking on the phone, and I am trying to trust myself more.

Oh yeah, I'm unable to give birth to children; love books, writing, traveling, and the color brown; hate to clean, cook, craft, or do laundry; allergic to pretty much everything but food (thank God); and think camping in anything but a tent is lame.

I needed somewhere to drop my daily mama thoughts and musings on toddler poop to avoid massive clutter and ramblings on our private family blog. Writing it down on paper is so '90s.

This is my everyday "blournal" as I navigate through my life as a first-time (or is it third-time now?) mama and long-time me. So....hi.

You can contact me at daily.dose.of.mama (at) gmail.com.

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As an editor, I deal with people on a regular basis who think images or content on the internet (whether it does or does not have a copyright designation) are "fair use." Your lesson for the day is that anything someone writes or creates that is published on the internet is copyright protected, whether he or she spells it out or not. Although I doubt anyone wants to steal my riveting posts on toddler poop, it doesn't hurt to educate the world about the wonderful magic of online copyright law.