A Year of Gratitude #115

 

A Year of Gratitude #115: A Clean House

 

So handsome!

Today was interesting. Steve left this morning for NYC and won't be back until very late on Thursday night. I hate when he travels, but I'm thankful that it's not often, and it's usually only for a few days and he's home for the weekend.

Gus got up this morning and we had a bit of time before our cleaning crew arrived. I put his new tie on him that my friend Amie made for him, and took some pictures. I have to say... they are so stinkin' cute. I AM biased... but seriously... he's adorable.

Our cleaning crew came at 8:30 and because it had been so long since they were last here (they were supposed to come last Tuesday, but Dave was here, so we moved it to Friday afternoon, and then she forgot), it took them longer than usual. 

Gus loves when they come. He is so very friendly with them, and they seem to really like him too. Graciela's husband calls Gus, "Batman" each time that he sees him (because Gus was wearing his Batman pjs once when they came). Gus likes to "help" and they're so good about letting him touch their stuff. Gus especially likes their duster... and today he grabbed it on his way downstairs. Graciela told him he could have it until she had to leave. He decided to clean the basement for them...

 

So delighted to have the duster!

After they left, Gus and I headed upstairs for a bit. Michelle and June came over and brought us Panera (YUMMMM) for lunch. I had a great visit with Michelle and at 1:30 I put Gus down for a nap.

 

Cowboy Gus

 

Michelle and June... and Gus spotted her bottle! Thankfully he tried to feed her... and only put it in his mouth once (LOL)

 

Purry was all up on June. Not sure why he was so fascinated with her, but he tried to get as close to her as possible

After Michelle left, Gus got up... it was like 4:00 or so. When I walked into his room... I instantly smelled it... and I knew he had either thrown up or had a major blow-out. I checked the crib and found nothing... and then I picked Gus up to take him to the changing table... and instantly smelled it and saw it.

POOP.

EVERYWHERE.

It was all up his back, and had filled his diaper and more. When I removed his clothes, I saw that where the poop had been touching, caused his skin to turn deep red and almost looked like it was blistering. OUCH.

So I got him undressed and we went to the tub for a bath. I think the water made him feel better because he was happy, and when he got out, the redness was decreased greatly. I put some Cortisone on his tush to help it feel better.

The rest of our evening was uneventful... but I'm so thankful that on top of all the craziness and stress today, I have a clean house. It's one less thing that I have to worry about or take care of.

A Year of Gratitude #95

 

A Year of Gratitude #95: Feeling Better

It's been exactly a week since I started to feel awful, and I am happy to say that I am finally feeling better! I still have a cough, but it's not as frequent, and not as scary sounding.

Today was a bit stressful for me. Our cleaning crew couldn't come at 8:30 this morning, so instead, they came at 10:30. This set the whole day off for me. I HAD to go grocery shopping today and with Gus napping at 2:00 it leaves very little time for plans to go wrong.

The cleaners didn't leave until 12:30 and I wasn't able to get to Wal-Mart until almost 1:00. We got there and Gus was STARVING. I hate the Wal-Mart here... I can't ever find anything and I end up running back and forth all over the stupid store trying to find things that I forgot, or thought they were one place and they were in another.

Not the best use of the precious hour that I had. I ended up grabbing Gus a Lunchable and he and I shared it while I shopped. He also ate an ENTIRE bag of yogurt melts... talk about a hungry child!! I DID bring him his snack cup with Cheese Its, but they were consumed before we even get inside the store.  We also share his water (I twisted the top off the sippy and drank some of his water).

Anyway-- I frantically got through Wal-Mart, but it was 2:30 and Gus was exhausted and still needed to get home, unpack the car, and get him prepped for his nap. He went down around 3:00.

Thankfully, he slept until a little after 5:00... (which wasn't enough sleep for him, but I'm thankful that he didn't sleep the afternoon away and screw up his bedtime schedule).

The remainder of the afternoon was good and Gus went to bed at his usual time, and was rubbing his eyes and was actually sleepy. All good signs. I'm hoping he sleeps well tonight and doesn't wake until 8:00 tomorrow morning!!

A Year of Gratitude #52

 

A Year of Gratitude #52: Cleaning Crew

Sometimes you have to face the cold, hard facts. It's not always pleasant to realize your faults, but when you do, it's important to share your findings with the person who matters the most. In my case, this person is Steve.

I've never been a "cleaner." In fact, while I'm super organized in certain aspects of my life (my pantry/cupboards/classroom/basement toy organization), I am a slob in others. I wasn't raised by parents who demanded that I keep things spotless. Sure, I had to have a picked up room... and I had chores, but my parents were not neat-freaks and didn't instill in me a need to be super tidy and meticulously clean.

I've got no problems with this.  :-)   My husband however... was raised by a mother who was a bit of a neat-freak. He has her need to keep things spot-less and what I consider to be heavy cleaning on my part, Steve considers to be merely picking things up.

He scrubs the counters with scolding hot soapy water after every meal... I'm good if I wipe up with a paper towel.

Steve moves things around to vacuum and dust... I go around what's there. It's not like anyone is going to lift stuff up anyway right?? 

The battle of our views on cleaning caused so many disagreements, hurt feelings, and bitterness. We'd let the house go so far and then have to bust our asses to get it cleaned up. He'd become resentful of me for not doing more work, and I just wanted to sit and watch tv instead of being barked at by him. It wasn't pretty.

While Steve was working at Burt's Bees, he had shared our mutual frustrations with each other about our difference of opinion on cleanliness to his co-worker Christy. She told him that she and her husband had the same issue... and their resolution was to get a cleaning lady.

Well... Steve told me about this and we decided to have Christy's cleaning lady (it was actually a few people) come and clean the house. It was awesome.

Then I found Suzanne... she was recommended to me by one of my MOMS Club friends in NC. We were talking about cleaning and I said we had cleaners... when my friend said Suzanne cleaned her house every other week for $50 I was AMAZED at the price. I emailed Suzanne and ditched our cleaners for Suzanne's services. We had Suzanne clean our house for almost a year. She was WONDERFUL and grew to be a friend.

When we moved to Georgia, I wasn't sure where to even start with finding someone to clean for us. Being in Johns Creek, there's a lot of cleaning people around, but they charge an arm and a leg. We're paying the same for our crew that we paid the cleaning group that Christy referred us to back in NC.

Our cleaning crew is made up of Graciela, her husband and two sons (they're in their 20s). Graciela was referred to me from a mom on Atlanta Area Mommies. They do an incredible job and clean from top to bottom. It's a thorough scrubbing and gets us through two weeks without any problems. 

Not only is it nice to have other people clean for me (I LOATHE CLEANING), but it's nice that Steve and I don't fight about cleaning, we don't break our backs trying to clean on the weekend, when we SHOULD be enjoying our time together, and we're guaranteed that our house is getting the proper interior maintenance. I like knowing that at any given moment, someone could come over and I wouldn't be embarrassed of the appearance of my house. 

Anyway, I'm thankful that Steve and I are able to afford someone to clean our home, and we have a schedule in place so that we don't have to waste any time disagreeing on what's considered clean or not.

The investment has helped our marriage and I'm thankful that it's one less thing to worry about.