Time to Clean by Angie Ledbetter

It’s early March, and spring has arrived in the southern portions of the US after a strange winter. This year we’ve had some days that went from 30° to 85°, with bouts of strong winds, rain and tornadic activity mixed in. But so far this month, it’s been almost perfect every day, making kids’ baseball tournaments enjoyable and presenting an opening for spring cleaning. Normally, I wouldn’t be grateful for an opportunity to do chores, but over the weekend, we got a lot accomplished around the house and yard. It was time to catch up on things that had been shoved off the To-Do list for far too long.

Being spread thin between teaching, running with my kids and their activities, helping out family in need, freelancing, yada yada, time for spring cleaning has been hard to come by until yesterday. You may wonder why on earth anyone would be thankful for a day of hard work, but I really am. The benefits include getting to exercise some muscles that rarely get used, being outside under lovely white cloud skies, a nice looking home which is now freer from clutter, and having flowerbeds ready to get busy blooming. Like most work, I got a feeling of accomplishment for tackling things I’ve put off for a long time. Did I mention, until yesterday, my Christmas tree and decorations were still up? But on a good note, I have purchased a life-like, pre-lit tree, so at least I’m not saddled with a Charlie Brown stump of shame this year.

So what did I get done yesterday? Six loads of clothes, helped middle son paint his bedroom electric blue (3+ coats needed before it’s all said and done), cooked ahead for the week, weeded flowerbeds and pruned mature plants all around the yard, cleaned patio and garage, put holiday stuff back in the attic, and general sprucing up. The homestead actually looks like people live here instead of pigs. After all that work, I slept well last night, and woke with a sense of satisfaction. And today I don’t have that Monday-morning-time-to-make-a-list-of-things-to-do feeling either. Yes!