I can only imagine that I am not alone here.  I want to be the mom with the nice clean house, the one that cooks dinner from scratch most nights, that does arts and crafts projects with her kids, and reads a story and tucks her kids snuggly into bed each night… oh and exercises, can’t forget that.  You know the mom you see on television or on the movies?  Well the mom on television might not exercise but she does everything else right.  I could be this mom if I could just quit doddling.  Everything I go to do takes me so much time and by the time I get done doing it, it needs to be done again, and then there is no time left to be that mom I want to be.

In order for me to stay on top of my house I have to spend a whole lot of time on it.  I don’t mean twenty minutes a day.  That won’t cut it around here.  It takes me at least twenty minutes to cook dinner which is probably why I don’t cook often enough.  Then it takes another twenty or thirty minutes to do the dishes.  To keep up with the laundry and not just wash it and throw it a huge pile on the laundry table, I need to spend twenty or thirty minutes a day – at least.  At our house you can’t mop the kitchen once a week.  To really keep it clean you need to mop it at least three times a week if not every day.  You have to sweep all the floors every day.  And, for that matter (more…)