Saturday, April 25, 2009

rocking it

A few years ago I remember hearing a man on the radio talking about the rocking chair test.  He said that you will never see his car clean because it just doesn't pass his test.  He has decided that when he is old and sitting on his front porch in his rocking chair, he probably won't be spending a large amount of time regretting the time he didn't spend cleaning his car.  I like this.  My car reflects my life style.  There is no way in heck that you will look in my car and not know that its primary job is to tote around six girls to various activities and adventures because cleaning it out every day just hasn't passed the rocking chair test for me.

Another thing that I am not so great at is cleaning my house.  If I had more time, I would go around and take pictures of my disgustingness just to make you all feel better.  My laundry room looks very....laundryish.  And in general, my house is pretty far from clean.  These both go back to two things.  One is that I hate to spend a lot of time cleaning during the day while all of the kids are running around doing school because it just doesn't stay clean for more than 2 minutes. (consider it a hazard of homeschooling and move on) and the other is that spending a lot of time on straightening up throughout the day just doesn't pass the aforementioned test.   

Don't get me wrong.  There are times (like when guests are coming over) that I run around like a madman straightening up and all, but if any of you decide to stop by randomly, brace yourselves.  And think rocking chair.   And just about any crafting that is done in my house is either done during naptime with a kid on my lap or during the hours of 10pm-2am. (Chloe just read this over my shoulder and said "What?  You really stay up that late?")  My secrets are out.  Uh oh.    

6 comments:

nikko said...

Yeah, and there are some of us who don't have the homeschooling excuse. I'm just lazy I've decided. I really detest spending my time cleaning and straightening when I could be spending it doing other things... ;o)

So true about the crafting time -- naptimes are about it. If I try to sew with a kid on the lap, they push buttons and change stitches on me! Ah!

Annalia said...

Feel free to call me when you're up that late...I'm either nursing or sewing...we can craft "together".

Linda Tunnell said...

I just love this and need to remind myself more, I am getting more laid back believe me its worth it.

Beth Tunnell said...

I like this rocking chair test concept. Maybe I'll use it on James sometime.

bloodfamily said...

What's more important is that the kids aren't really going to remember if the house or car was spotless or not - but they will remember how you made them feel while painstakingly home schooling them and spending all of your valuable time with them. Now really, what is more important? You go girl!

Lisa said...

I don't have the homeschooling excuse or the 6 kids excuse. I only have one 8 month old and my home is still not clean at all, but I just don't feel like cleaning all the time either. I like to do other things when the baby is taking a nap.
My little 8 month old is also a loud one. She likes to talk, screech, sing, whatever really loud at times. I just smile at people and hope that they are understanding (of course we will take her out if she got that way at church or other places that need to be quiet).