Clean Room

The children have been struggling with being very tired since school started again last week. Dane has dark circles under his eye, which we can't seem to get rid of. Deanna's been grumpy. And Daelyn and I are just plain tired. He wants to lay around all morning, watching cartoons or movies. But, after naptime, he seems to be energized.

The afternoons have been glorious. The temps have typically been in the 70's. Yesterday, I actually encouraged Dane to change into shorts to play outside. Perhaps this is part of the reason the children are so tired. After school all day, they're playing hard outside all afternoon and, by dinner time, they're falling asleep at the table.

Last week, Daelyn could hardly keep his eyes open during lunch. I asked him if he was tired. It's very rare for him to actually admit tiredness. I was very surprised when he responded, "Yes, Mommy, my sweet little body is just worn out."

Obviously, he hears comments quite often about his "sweet little body" from Mommy - your sweet little body is just tired out; your sweet little body needs a good meal; your sweet little body needs to get washed clean; your sweet little body ... you get the basic idea. It really is an awfully sweet little body, and has a sweet little boy inside it.

On another front, I got fed up with the situation in Deanna's room. The bottom line is, she just has wa-a-a-a-ay too much STUFF. She's a hoarder, just like her sweet little daddy. When, after working on a project with the boys, you couldn't find a single square inch of empty floor space, I sent her and Dane in to clean. Two hours later (by Deanna's account - I really think it was closer to 45 minutes), much had been done, but there was still loads to be accomplished.
I had already told her she needed to spend more time on it on Sunday, and expected about 1/2 hour worth of work, when I overheard her telling Dane, "This is as clean as it gets."


Hah!! That's what she thinks. Everything would have been just fine if she hadn't been so accepting of mediocrity. So, Monday night just before her bedtime, I forwarned Don so he'd be prepared for the crying, shouting, and fussing, and then I took a large box into Deanna's room and began picking up everything off the floor and putting it in the box. Deanna very quickly asked what I was doing. My intention was to put everything in the box and remove it from her room. If she didn't miss it in 2 weeks, I'd dispose of it because, obviously, it wasn't important. But, when she asked, I told her that anything on the floor was going in the box, and anything in the box was being disposed of. I've never seen the girl work so hard and fast. She started working in front of me, amazingly finding places for all her treasures that littered the floor. Every couple of minutes, she's go through the box and look for stuff I was throwing out that she wanted. And, thus, in half an hour, the entire floor was cleaned off and 3/4 of the room was spotless. Deanna had cleaned out the floor of the closet over the weekend, but we got all her bookshelves cleaned out and even cleaned under her bed.

Yesterday, I cleaned out her closet and disposed of clothes that don't fit. I organized her clothes into outfits and put all the pants that aren't parts of outfits together, as well as all the loose shirts and sweaters. Then, I reorganized her drawers. I had noticed that her underwear and sock drawer needed some help, so I began with it, getting rid of things that no longer fit and neatening up. Then I went on to clean out all her drawers. I got so excited, I then moved to the boys' room and redid all their drawers, as well. Then I put away their clean clothes, washed their sheets and remade all the beds. By the end of the day, I felt like I had really accomplished something, and was very encouraged.

This morning, before taking the children to school, I checked in on Deanna. Her bed was made - neatly - and the entire room looked orderly. I couldn't believe it. She's always had trouble making up her bed, but there it was, all clean and neat, with her stuffed animals laid out prettily. I commented on it. She pretended to not know what I was talking about.

"What, Mama, what do you mean?" she asked, coyly.

"Your room, honey. It looks great. Your bed is all neat and your room is orderly. Doesn't it feel good?"

"Oh, that," still not willing to acquiese. But she had a slight smile on her face and I could tell she was enjoying the order and peace around her.

As I am today. The whole house just feels better. Now, Daelyn and I have to tackle the toy room. Wish us luck!!