confessions and tips from "hurricane cindie's" daughter.

i wasn't raised in a super clean home.
my dad was a general contractor and was in continual "work mode" on our house.
my mother, although organized wasn't one of those "disinfecting people".
there were four kids and she chose her battles.

now clean is different than organized.
that she was.
we had to keep main living areas picked up, couldn't leave shoes and toys and books lying around (with out them being taken away and having to buy them back with our allowance), and we all had real chores(vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, and doing the dishes)  to help clean the house.
maybe us being part of the cleaning crew was part of why this weren't that well cleaned?

part of my young image of my mom was her organization and her teaching us how to take care of things, so it came to a intriguing surprise to me to hear the stories of my mom's teenage years where the family that she lived with named her "hurricane cindie".
"hurricane"because she left messes!?
the same woman who then taught us never to leave our shoes on the stairs and made us redo the scrubbing of the toilet until it was acceptable!?

then it was just plain hard to believe, but now i know better.
it's funny how our place in the world, relative to another, can modify their view of the reality of who we are.
my mom was...my mom.
she taught me stuff.
to me she was motherhood and domesticity (is that a word, Les?)
but that wasn't really her.
that was her job.
apparently she was really a bit messy.
but she knew she had to teach her daughters how to keep things clean and i'm sure as time charged on past her teenage years she became more grown up and embraced the blessing of a clean(ish) house.
a home.

well, my cleanliness story is similar.
i was a pretty messy teenager.
one main difference now though, is that i am not married to a do-it-yourself-er.
i am married to a very clean businessman.(remember this?)
a super cute one.
one that works very hard at his office everyday, and then comes home to me.
me.
a "not super spick and span" little homemaker.
i'm sure he is disappointed at times, but he's gotten used to it by now....i think.
i'm artistic, ok?
it's not that bad.
if you came to my house you'd probably think it was pretty "picked up"...maybe not clean, but...
i've definitely gotten more clean over the years with him.
and we have a lot of pretty "stuff" everywhere!

my mom used to say, "i have many other fine qualities" when confronted with her shortcomings, so i'm gonna go with that too.

so, the point of this post is to confess.
even though you might think that i have a blog so i must be together enough to do all my home-maker chores beautifully and then show you lovely photographs of how perfect my house and home making abilities are.
um. yah.
that is just really far off.
most things i just plain don't do, i have gotten good at from trial and error or i blatantly copy a "gifted" friend.
cooking...trial and error
laundry....blatantly copying lena (costco lavender detergent, a scoop of oxi-clean, and fabric softener)
general cleaning...i have help with that every other week, and in between it is embarrassing how often i have scrubbed a toilet or mopped a floor
carpet...seriously disgusting because i so rarely vacuum
stains and baseboards....lena again with magic erasers
sweeping...i do know how to do that. that must be my specialty. sweeping.

and just for good measure i will confess that i should change sheets and make my kids floss way more that i actually do.

oh yah, and i call myself a size 8 but really i am a 10 in most stores and an XL at any store that dares to put the number 21 in their name...who am i kidding.

ah. there. i said it.
it feels pretty good.

and as for the tips.
the reason i thought of this post is because of the simple advise that my sweetie friend lena gave me the other day, about what products to use for my laundry.
you should try that stuff she recommended (up there.)
why didn't i ask that sooner?
when you ask, many times the answer is far more simple than you had expected.
you should suck it up and ask your friends that seem to be super good at something, how they do it instead of pretending like you already have it together.
(i still haven't figured out how my friend erin keeps her clothes so white....)
and then you should just not get fooled into thinking that other people have it perfectly together.
they might be on top of some things.
and that is great!
maybe you can learn something from them.
but i guarantee you they stink at something...
don't we all?

so, any home-making tips for me today, friends?
i could obviously use them.

and just so you know it's still me and this blog hasn't been hijacked by a wordy debbie downer, here are some photos of my children at the beach a few mornings ago....

shot with my phone

shot with my phone

oh yah.
and one of ella's delicious thumb.

shot with my phone

now do ya recognize me?

little moments between a million messes....