I love my house. It certainly isn't perfect, but perfect things are too boring to bother loving anyway. As much as I love going away, I love coming home. Coming home to my house this time was even sweeter than usual because while I was gone, my friend Carrie drove all the way from Pennsylvania (two hours each way) to clean my house. It was beautiful. As soon as I walked in, I could smell the clean. I can't even begin to express how amazing the gift was. All day Sunday, I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather and being back instead of stressing about dirty floors and scummy sinks. The gesture sort of blew my mind, and made me realize how rarely I do things for other people these days. I do a lot for my kids, and I
try to do things for my family, but I am definitely getting more than I receive.
It's easy to blame it on four kids, but I don't want to. I want to be a person who finds ways to be more thoughtful and caring. At this stage in my life I probably can't sacrifice 10 hours straight to any particular endeavor like Carrie did, but I can sure as heck do better than I have been. So now I'm on a mission to try to brainstorm ways to be more giving. It feels so good to know that you are loved and cared for. I want to make sure that my people know how much they mean to me. Money is almost in as short of supply as time these days, so I need to be creative, but I'm up for the challenge (I hope).
As a means of immortalizing Carrie's hard work, I went around taking pictures because a house this clean doesn't last long.
The worst part about that day was when Felix walked through the door looking totally forlorn about the fact that there were no little kids clobbering him to the ground. He was seriously confused for like the first 10 minutes after arriving. It was kinda sad.
ReplyDeletePoor little man. We'll make sure to have someone clobber him soon.
DeleteWhat a wonderful friend you have :). And how special that it has inspired you too. Your home is beautifully restful - I can see why you like coming home.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alexa. I am really lucky to have her and my house.
Deleteoh how beautiful - the gift of the cleaning and your house! This is inspiring. I love to cook and feed my family and friends as a way to love and give back - not sure I am selfless enough to clean their houses :)
ReplyDeleteI'm so with you. I would waaaayyyy rather cook for the people I love.
DeleteIt's good that you took a moment to capture everything on camera, so you can look back on how good people could be, and how much you can do for other people. That being said, it was really nice of Carrie to drive all the way to do this for you. What a great friend she must be. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteBob Wolfe @ The Maids Triad