Friday, January 28, 2011

No Time for Cleaning

I'd like to give a shout out to working moms; no, maybe not even moms, but working women. I don't know how you've done it all these years. Of course, as a stay-at-home mom for years, who still managed to work from home, I don't know how I did it all those years either.
Here I am at Friday of the week and I still have essays from two full classes to grade. I could look at the bright side -- that means I've finished grading four classes worth of homework.
Yesterday, I worked from 9 to 1 then again from 2:30 to 5. But, of course, I'm teaching four classes online this quarter, so when I actually get home, more work is waiting.
Then there are groceries to buy, dinner to fix, and kids to talk to. Meanwhile, the essays waiting to be graded pulse silently in the background, taunting me.
I haven't vacuumed for...well, awhile. I could be doing that right now instead of writing a blog post! I've offered the boys 10 dollars per room they clean, but they have to follow my carefully constructed list of cleaning steps. So far, they'd rather be broke than clean.
My husband Earl is a real trooper, doing the laundry to keep us all in sweet-smelling clothes.
In addition to the waiting essays and the gathering dustballs, TurboTax is downloaded ready for me to complete our yearly taxes by the end of the month so I can submit it to the financial aid gurus and hope Grace continues to get some help with college expenses.
Saturday is shot, filled with swim meets and basketball games.
I'll get around to grading all of those essays, and I will finish our taxes, but the dust balls are just going to have to rally, maybe start some sort of wagon train to head out west, cause I'm not sure when I'll get around to sweeping them in that direction.

Based on a photo from:www.fourth-millennium.net

6 comments:

Lucia said...

I don't mind so much the vacumming and the dusting, it's the washing of the floors, or cleaning the fridge and oven...everything else easy peasy.

Paulita said...

Want to come to my house and clean? I won't make you do the fridge and I have a Swiffer for the floors.

Stephanie said...

Clean the fridge?

I cannot believe how timely this is. I just forced myself to face our neglected shower stall, which was pretty scary. The kitchen floor is so filthy, I need to wear shoes to protect my feet.

Has anyone else ever fantasized about having an "Alice" (Brady Bunch)?

Linda said...

I live in a really small place and see dust and dust bunnies no matter where I am. I don't have the excuse of a job anymore. With our remodeling everything is a dusty mess but I'm not going to do a thing until they are finished.

Sheila said...

I'm not worried about cleaning (I'd rather work on my quilts any day) but this FAFSA is hanging over head driving me crazy. Waiting for Dan to do an estimate on our taxes so I can turn in Beth's and Daniel's. And why can't I see a way for the parent info to automatically fill in on both of their forms? You'd think I could merge the 2 somehow.

Stephanie said...

Sheila,

UHG. You had to remind me of that damn FAFSA. And I have to do it in triplicate this year! I dread it. And of course, I have to do our taxes first. Joy.

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