Advice

I don’t like to give advice, but here’s one that every new parent should take into consideration – especially if you want things to be clean.
 
Don’t use wood furniture!
 
Seriously. It is really hard to keep clean and kids are really messy and really hard on furniture. Mostly, I’m talking about dining room furniture, because that’s where most of the messes happen. We’ve had a large wood table for 12-15 years. It’s become an embarrassment. The top gets a lot of use, right? So, it’s scratched, dented, stained, rubbed down, and anything else that can happen to a wood table top. The leaf looks good because we didn’t always have enough room in our dining room to have the leaf in all the time (which we do now). So, the entire table looks even worse because the middle section is nice, which makes the rest of the table obviously un-nice (if that’s even a word).

And don’t think that just because your kids are older, you can finally get a wood dining set. My 18 year old accidently sprayed soda while standing in the dining room. Even after she thought she cleaned it, there was still stickiness on the chair, table, and floor.

I spent last Saturday cleaning the kitchen and dining area. Yes, all day. Why did it take me that long (aside from me being fat and out of shape and over-exerting my back)? Because I wiped down the chairs and the table (including underneath and the cracks between the leaf and the rest of the table – ew). I took down the curtains to prepare for my new back door to be installed. I swept and mopped the dining room and kitchen (also ew, because no one had done it for weeks). I wiped and sanitized the counters and sinks. The dishwasher ran three times that day and dishes were hand washed as well. (We still had to eat, after all). I even wiped off some shelves on either side of the window and washed the décor that was on them. And, I washed the rugs. (Ok, so the washer washed the rugs, but I gathered them and put them in and started it and then took them out and hung them up and when they were dry I put them back on the floor.)

Still, it was nice to be home and feel like I accomplished something that day. Travis asked me a couple of times if I wanted to go with him to get this or that, but I just didn’t want to. I needed a day home. I needed to at least feel like I caught up on something.

But – get plastic furniture for your dining room until all your kids are grown and gone. Seriously, it’s so much easier to clean!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoes

Shoes are interesting things. Weird, I know. But I recently bought a new pair of shoes. Why would this matter? Well, in reality, it doesn’t. But here’s the thing, I don’t buy anything with a heal. Except now. Not a huge heal, maybe only an inch or so, but it’s a big difference to me. While the shoes are currently quite uncomfortable, I know they will stretch out and work better. I have other shoes of this same brand that I wear to work because of their arch support. So, I have some confidence that these shoes will also be comfortable. But these shoes somehow make me feel different about myself. More confident maybe, or more dressy, or more feminine, or sexy, or something. They aren’t fancy or really very fashionable (not that I know anything about fashion). I really think the heal makes a difference. I can’t really explain it because I don’t understand how a simple shoe could change “me”, but it does. And then I go home and immediately remove the shoes because they a...
Read more

Let Go of Control

This morning on  my way to work I had an epiphany. I realized that I am more patient with my children because I stopped trying to control them. For years I felt like I needed to control everything they did and said and thought. I had trials/struggles/lessons over and over again in patience. Apparently, I’m a slow learner. But I guess I slowly started figuring it out. I can’t put an exact moment, just maybe a lot of years of ‘learning’. I guess I finally realized that the only thing that I really have control over is me. (What!?) I can certainly beg, bargain, remind, and plead – er, I mean, guide – my children to do their chores and homework and piano and viola and, and, and….. but I can’t force them. Ultimately, they choose their path. I hope that  my “guidance” helps them, somehow, somewhere, with their life decisions. I really just want them to be happy, responsible adults – but I can’t FORCE them to be happy or responsible. (I can, however, get them out...
Read more

Moving on....

My daughter is moving on. While I've waited all her life for this moment, I'm more sad about it than I thought I would be. Maybe because she and I talk a lot more than we used to. Maybe because she and I are temple buddies and go to the temple as often as we can. Even though she was gone for five months last year and we were able to adjust, and then re-adjust when she came back, I am still a bit sad to see her go. I want her to go and figure out life and be an adult. I think she's ready for that. I am a little comforted to know that she will be renting a room from my sister. She won't just be thrown into the big bad world on her own. She will also be sharing a bathroom with my niece/her cousin. With all those schedules, they may or may not see each other much, but it will be a familial environment far away from home, that might help ease her into reality. Backing up a couple of months.... In February, I just felt so strongly that B needed to go to the temple. She was...
Read more