Having a Clean Home

When I was growing up, my bedroom often became messy.  I would just throw my clothes wherever once I had worn them.  My room wasn't so much dirty as cluttered.

In college, my room was in a similar state.  I don't think it was ever really super dirty, but it would occasionally be cluttered.  I liked to have my things out where I could get to them easily and quickly.  It didn't bother me that things were occasionally on the floor.

The first year that Grig and I were married, we had a beautiful apartment.  It was small, but not too small.  It was just the right size for two college kids just starting out.  When Kevin came, it became a bit of a tighter squeeze, and it was pretty much constantly cluttered because there just wasn't room for all of our things.  It didn't really bother me unless we had company, then I would quickly straighten the place up because I wanted it to look as nice as it could.

When we moved to this new apartment, we suddenly had room for all of our things.  A gradual change then began occurring within me that I hadn't been aware was happening.  When we didn't have room to put things away, it didn't bother me if they were cluttering counters and desks.  However, now that there is a place for everything, I like it in its place.

Suddenly, I can't stand it anymore if the house is messy.  The other day, I was straightening things up, and Havelock came home.  He seemed confused and he asked me, "What are you doing? Is something happening tonight?"

I told him no, I just wanted the house to be clean.  He said, "Ah.  I guess you don't only have to clean when we have company." I thought it was a funny thing to say.

I've started realizing that I kind of get stressed out when my dishes aren't done or my floor is messy.  Yesterday I went on a crazy cleaning streak through the house.  I finally got my bathroom clean (which isn't easy with a 1-year-old).  My mother suggested Kevin have a bath while I cleaned the bathroom and that worked perfectly.  He happily played in the tub while I scrubbed the mirror, the sink, and the toilet.  After his bath, he fell asleep and I finished scrubbing the tub. 

I had already finished the dishes early that morning, and so I finished straightening the house quickly while he slept.  Then I wrote for a while, but having a clean house felt wonderful.

Kevin enjoys helping me clean.  When I am putting things in his bedroom, he is bringing them back out. While I put the books back on the bookshelf, he likes to pull them back out. We're working on him helping me in a more helpful way.

It turns out having a clean house feels nice and I rather like it.  I never thought that a messy house was going to bother me.  Go figure.  However, it's not a bad change and certainly makes things easier in the long run if I clean a little bit every day.  It's also more conducive to the Spirit to have clean house.

What are things that bother you?  Let me know in the comments.

LIfe Without a Microwave

I've had a microwave my whole life.  My parents always had one, and when I went to college the apartments were already furnished with one.  I've never really thought about not having one.

On my wedding night, my new husband and I came home to our new apartment with the leftover fried chicken, tired and hungry after a long day only to find that our new apartment didn't come with a microwave.  We ate some chicken cold and that was that.  The next morning, that was the first purchase we made as a newly married couple.  We bought a microwave.

When my husband was hired at his new job, we came and looked at the apartment.  Both my husband and I were relieved to have a larger microwave there, and I thought I saw it hanging over the sink.  So, we decided to give our microwave away to my brother and his fiance as a wedding present.  We wouldn't be needing it anymore. 

However, to our surprise when we moved in, there was no microwave there!  Both Grig and I could have sworn that there was one, but we decided not to worry about it.  We would start a microwave fund and buy one again when we had the money.  Things were pretty tight for a while though, and two weeks later, we still didn't have money for it. 

Have you ever lived life without a microwave?  It's kind of hard, but as my Grandfather reminded me, they didn't used to have microwaves at all.  I learned to reheat everything on the oven.  I had twice as many dishes because I'd remove the Tupperware from the fridge and then I'd have to put the food in a pan to reheat it.  I used to just be able to put the Tupperware in the microwave and be ready to go.  For a couple weeks, it was a pain and then I began to get used to it.  We probably could have gone on indefinitely without a microwave, except for one thing.

Microwave popcorn.

I love microwave popcorn.  I eat it quite frequently.  When I was pregnant I ate it even more frequently, but it still is one of my favorite snacks.  I could figure out how to cook anything without a microwave except my popcorn.  Its loss made me sad.  But I could endure, no matter how hard it was. 

But don't worry, the story has a happy ending.

A couple weeks after we moved, I received a call from my cousin.  They were in the process of moving, and the apartment we were moving into already had a microwave (for realsies).  She asked if we wanted her.  I am pretty sure that the Spirit told her to call us, because there was no reason why she would think we didn't have a microwave.  We told her we would love one, and a couple weeks later, we were able to go and pick it up!

I'm grateful to my cousin and to the Lord for providing us with a microwave when we didn't have the means to get one ourselves.  It just makes life a lot easier.  I don't regret the skills that I learned in those four weeks though.  I now can cook without a microwave, and we found out that fried quesadillas as so much better than microwaved quesadillas. 

Guess what the first thing I made with the microwave was when we finally got it home?

You guessed it. 

Microwave popcorn.