I've died and gone to ......

Did you say heaven? you're WRONG. (although that was my first thought) The correct answer is

WORK.

Let me explain. We got some new tenants in one of our duplexes. The majority of the rent is being paid by housing, as the husband is currently unemployed. The wife cleans houses. They asked Tim if they could work off their portion of the rent rather than having to come up with the cash. Tim agreed, so they will be maintaining the yard at the duplex, and the wife will be coming to our home twice a month to clean. She (and her daughter) came for the first time on Wednesday. Now as nice as that may sound, I have to tell you, I told Tim on Monday that I wanted him to call it all off. "The house is too messy. I will be mortified to let them come into this chaos." Tim said firmly, "They need to work and you need the help. They are coming."

Wednesday came, and I WAS mortified when I let them in, but I soon felt like I may have died and gone to heaven. I worked along with them, mostly trying to put stuff away as they cleaned, so you figure we had 3 people working hard for 3 1/2 hours. (Tim was working from home that day, so I sent the kids with him out to lunch - so for that whole hour I was even able to work un-distracted...) It was great! By the time they left, the upstairs was looking great! (I told them not to worry about the downstairs this week, since the hall was full of wheat and storage bins that need new homes) Anyway, the upstairs bathrooms got clean, kids rooms clean, everything vacuumed, walls, windows, blinds, and doors washed. closets straightened out, carpets vacuumed, kitchen counters all wiped down and floors cleaned. IT WAS FANTASTIC!!!

I woke up Thursday and loved walking through a clean house. Since the upstairs was under control, I could finally tackle some others things that have been needing to be done. Remember the wheat we arranged to buy through our self-reliance group? I bought 14 buckets. (630 lbs) It all got lined up in the downstairs hall, since I needed to rearrange the storage room to make room for it. It's been waiting there for me to find the time...
So yesterday I spent most of the day in the storage room. and it looks great! It was hard work, having to empty shelves, them rearranging everything, the reloading all the shelves. I was EXHAUSTED by dinner time - but the wheat is in it's new home and it feels so good to have that out of the way. (I'm not quite done, but less than an hours worth of work left, I'd say.)
Last night before I went to bed, I spend 45 minutes picking up the random things lying around and cleaning up the kitchen dinner mess (took in dinner to a friend who is sick right now). It was just as great waking up (on day 2) to a clean house. Since the kitchen was mostly clean (a few breakfast spills) I went out to pull weeds. I planned to pull weeds for 30 minutes, which turned into and hour and 15 minutes. (The back yard has been severely neglected of late, and the weeds are loving it) I filled up 4 large trash bags, and then started making piles of pulled weeds when I had filled all the bags. (didn't want to stop to come in for more bags) That one section looks a thousand times better now. Only a gazillion more weeds to go!

SO - now you know, I've died and gone to work. I think I may have found the cure to the "one-day-wonder-itis." It has been easier to work (3 whole days in a row) because I'm not doing the SAME stuff everyday- with no lasting obvious results; instead I'm actually able to enjoy the results and I'm able to tackle new projects. It has been a great couple of days. I think I might really like this housecleaning help thing. I highly recommend it.