Cleaning

Starting next week, I will be going into the office 2 days a week.  I am not looking forward to it, but it’s something that needs to be done.  And with no kids at home, I don’t have an excuse not to.  I have also been going over to our church to exercise with a group of women 3 mornings a week.  Which means I will not have a morning to myself.

So this morning I decided that I wanted to stay home and enjoy being alone in the quiet for one last morning.  I chose to not go over to exercise.  I was going to crawl back into bed after the kids left for school and take a long nap, then soak in the tub when I woke up. 

But as I was standing by the side of my bed, I looked around at the mess.  Now don’t get me wrong, my house isn’t filthy.  But there was stuff sitting around that needed to be put away.  So I decided to do a quick pick-up and put-away session while I called my mom.  I did that and we were still talking, and I noticed that I hadn’t dusted in a while.  So I grabbed my Swiffer cloth and dusted while were talking. 

When I got off the phone, I decided that my whole house needed a good cleaning.  I could have (and should have) waited for my children to get home and help me, but when I get the motivation to clean, I try not to ignore it!  Plus I was feeling really guilty for not exercising, so I thought I would make this my exercise for the day. 

I have loaded all my CD’s on my computer, and I used Windows Media Player to create a cleaning playlist.  Fast moving music that I can sing to and keeps me moving.  I put it on super loud (SUPER loud!) and went to work.  I finished dusting, then vacuumed all the carpet, swept all the floors, mopped all the floors, shook all the rugs, and cleaned both bathrooms.  It took me 2 hours and 15 minutes, and I was exhausted when I was done.  I had worked fast and hard and my face was bright red.  I felt like I had just worked out for 2 hours. 

Wait, I had!  Exercise doesn’t have to be aerobics or yoga.  I was up and down and moving my arms and legs and squatting and reaching and bending.  And even if I had to take a cool shower to try and cool down when I was done, I felt good. You know, that feeling that you accomplished something.  And I had it doubly good because I also had a super clean house when I was done!

I may skip exercising once a week and just focus on cleaning that day.  I love how my house looks!