Just a 46-year-old mom of 2 in Northern California. My kids are Monkey Monkey(MM) and Drama Llama (DL). I am married to Monkey Hubby (MH). **Yes, I Was definitely very much extra Kumbayah when the question was asked, "What Would You Change?" Lazing around the house a few weeks will do that to you, I guess. 
Anyway, as I am thrust into "crazy busy" at work, one thing I wish I was better at was doing small chores on a daily basis. I LIKE financial chores, so those are always done. But most other household chores, I am not a fan of, and I rarely do.
I've shared my philosophy of cleaning before. IT's the pyramid structure. The dishes, trash, laundry, bathing are ALWAYS done, but everything else can wait. Just, nothing else is quite as important. The less important it is, the more rarely we do it.
I probably feel a little extra buried after surgery and not lifting a finger around the house for a few weeks.
Will see how long it lasts, but for now I have been committing to one small chore every night. Of course, I haven't gotten back into a workout schedule, so I think I usually spend more time working out. BUT, that's still not an excuse to not spend 5-10 minutes every day keeping the house neat.
So far this week?
**Cleaned most the mirrors upstairs, and wiped down all the door knobs while at it. (I noticed the kids' mirrors were covered in finger prints - so started with that - but then noticed how filthy the other mirrors were - might as well do them all!
**Clean bathroom while kids are in the tub. They no longer need that constant supervision, so might as well be productive. Sometimes I file papers at the top of the stair (where I can keep an eye on them), while they bathe. Sometimes I clean all the toilets.
**Wednesday I dumped the extra cat box we put in our bathroom when we went to Hawaii. (We've only been home 4 months???). Not a good long term solution - cat litter in our bed all the time now. Blech!
So, finally got around to that. I also cleaned the vacuum because I realized it was completely filthy (the bottom part).
Other ideas?
-Dusting sections of house
-Vacuum sections of the house
-dust/vacuum stairs
-clean car interiors
I keep on the downstairs a little better due to frequent guests. Not that I do well with the daily clean, but we tend to hit the downstairs more often. I NEVER have any motivation to clean the upstairs. So I am thinking this might help us keep on top of the house as a whole.
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In other news, I am disgusted with society. I was really terrible and slow with the Christmas/Birthday Thank Yous. But the only feedback I ever get is that everyone else is too busy to be polite. "How do you find the time?????" To write a thank you note? Honestly, I am embarassed it usually takes me so long. I think I sat down for a half hour and wrote off a pile of notes.
Just leaves me kind of disgusted.
The funny thing is, I don't think I would necessarily notice or care if we didn't get Thank Yous from everyone, but it's that statement, "I don't have the time," that just annoys me. "You won't make the time," is the truth of it. It's not important to you. Apparently, society mostly agrees. Kind of sad, don't you think?
Regardless of all of the above, the truth is my kids are at an age where they can mostly do their own Thank You cards. Which is more the point - not to make the adults suffer - but to teach our kids to be polite.
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Our latest cooking mag had this Pistachoi cake recipe:
Usually their new recipes are not public, but this one is kind of sort of... You can see the entire recipe if you really want to?
It looks very similar to another cake recipe I have - that one is more of a streudel - but uses a yellow cake mix and some oil and sour cream to make it extra moist and divine. Anyway, this one is a similar concept with a pistachio theme. It looks YUM. Hopefully I can make time to bake it this weekend.
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P.S. I finally got $150 awards redeemed from my AmEx to my Fidelity IRA. Woohoo!
February 10th, 2011 at 10:00 pm 1297375239
I like good manners and think they are essential. I was picking up my kindergartner from a playdate yesterday. He was putting on his coat and the hosting mother said, "A, thank you for coming over today." Without looking up from his zipper he said, "You are welcome. Thank you for having me." She was surprised he said thank you without prompting, I should add that at that time her child was running around in his uniform shirt and underpants yelling "Geronimo", so I guess that anything short of that would be acceptable.
February 11th, 2011 at 12:22 am 1297383744
Have for the last week (or is it 2 weeks now?) been alternately grumping and examining conscious, trying to decide whether I have a bad case of elder-grump, or whether other people really do have the duty to clean their frickin' iced sidewalks. Ya, know--I can do it, why can't they? Sound familiar?
February 11th, 2011 at 02:51 am 1297392665
February 11th, 2011 at 04:30 pm 1297441840
February 11th, 2011 at 04:37 pm 1297442226
BUT, I Can't get into it. Way too much time spent on chores I would never do!
But, probably where I got the "little chores every day" idea. About a decade ago. Still trying! LOL.