I think I need to dust!!

[kim]

When DS was little, he was a strange child and still is in some ways. He didn't like sweets and ice cream but loved fruits. He likes sweets now, but would rather have chips, preferably tortilla chips and salsa and not so much the other kinds of chips. He doesn't do hamburgers much and only eats hot dogs when he is camping and cooks it over the fire. Never been into Mac n Cheese. He doesn't really do all the "kid" foods, except for chicken nuggets. He does do milk shakes and ice cream now.

My house is "lived in". I like it clean, but it isn't worth the stress to clean it. With DH and DS, it would be a 24/7 job and it just isn't worth it to me. I like to say we are sanitary, just "lived in". The only thing that I really do have to take care of is the dust....DH is allergic so blinds have to be dusted weekly. I have no curtains or carpet. My office is where the dust gathers because when I'm in it, I am at the computer and/or working. It's the one place that my housekeeper doesn't come in when I am working, so the cleaning of it is up to me.

I would really love to win the lottery so I could hire someone full time to clean, cook, do the shopping, and just leave me the time to do all the thing I WANT to do. I just keep forgetting to buy the lottery tickets.

[Suzan]

Amen Kim

[kate3]

Kim, You have a housekeeper? I would have to tidy up before I got one. My home is a clean mess and they are supposed to be lived in, mine is. It could be worse if I didn't have that little cupboard that washed the dishes. I call it that because this is the first home I have bought where the dishwasher is behind cabinet doors. I think they were hiding it.
I think my daughter is a match to your son. She has never eaten sweet things and from a baby she chose raw vegetables and fruits. Now she has added pasta and rice. She did eat red meat but not much, then they showed her how it was raised and killed at school in a film. No more meat. That is one of our main industries and the schools are killing it off. I have to admit I only ate red meat about once a month. For some reason she doesn't count chicken as meat. Probably because our chickens peck her ankles when she is feeding them and collecting the eggs. She thinks they deserve to be eaten. Husband went to feed them and collect eggs as his daily exercise after surgery. He came back with no eggs so I asked him if he fed them and gave them water. He told me no! They tried to bite me. They don't have teeth. Last night he told me I had to show him how to feed the dogs so they don't slobber on him. Yeah, you can see he does a lot around the house.

[kim]

Kate, DS loves red meat and chicken. Actually, any kind of meat. He still loves fruit, but has added some sweets, but mostly likes salty snacks. And whatever you do, do not have canned fruits, like mandarin oranges in the cupboard. He will drink the juice! Won't eat the canned fruit, but he loves the juice. And whatever you do, don't take him to a restaurant where you pay for crawfish by the pound! The kid can put away steaks and crawfish.

I don't have chickens to feed, but I have several dogs. They LOVE me because they know who feeds them and scratches their belly. Even though I consider myself living in the country, I have never gotten the knack for "country living" and raising livestock. My SIL has chickens, etc and can dress a deer and cut it up and package the meat. if mine doesn't come from the grocery story already cut up, it ain't getting cooked in my kitchen. And I don't want to know what I am eating at my in-laws house, and they don't tell me. As long as I don't know what it is, I will eat it.

I have a housekeeper once a week because DH got tired of me cleaning house when I was supposed to be working. Of course, she can't do it all, but she does do the dusting and stuff. I still have to pick up after DH and DS so the house doesn't look too lived in. LOL....otherwise we would be in a pig sty. For some reason, DH and DS don't know what the garbage cans are for or the laundry chute. Picking up after those two is a 24 hour job. DH's idea of "helping do the dishes" is to just stack them in the sink, food and all. He doesn't understand it causes me more work because I have to take it out of the sink, clean the food from the dishes and put water into the sink. He does iron his own clothes now and so does DS. DS will even do laundry.

[Suzan]

OMgosh Kim that is so my house. with out the house keeper. Same with the pets. and everything.

[kim]

Suzan, then you know how time consuming just picking up can be. You would think that mine would just simply put things like trash or dirty laundry in their proper place. I can understand where some don't put things up in the proper place, but trash??? Nope, both of mine will drop it wherever and I have to clean it up. I have nagged and nagged, tried leaving it there to see if anyone else would ever pick it up...nothing worked. I even refused to wash clothes if there is nothing but my clothes in the laundry chute. It is a losing battle. I've learned not to stress out over it....it's a waste of my energy and I have better things to expend my energy on. I just go around every morning and pick up everything they left behind the night before...usually enough cups/glasses/plates to fill the dishwasher. If I clean up at night, the little night elves leave more behind while I am asleep. If I go out in the garage right now, I will probably find 4 or 5 cups. I have my MIL cups, she has mine. DH leaves them EVERYWHERE!! And do you know who is the worst culprit! DH and him being a grown man.

[kate3]

Kim, It sounds like you Suzan and I have to run away together and live in a giant craft room with a fridge. My daughter was a neatness freak until she was 12. I think she must have had brain virus then and turned into her father. They both drop everything where they finished with it. How hard is it to just put it back where you got it from?
I tried the not picking anything up for a week to see if anyone noticed. I was almost buried alive! I have got them both doing their own washing. I only had to kill a couple of their favourite outfits to make that happen. Did they really believe I forgot how to do the washing after all of these years? They even turn the dishwasher on if I load it. No wonder we don't have enough crafting time. They are all old enough to take care of us.

[kim]

Hehe. I could say that I was ignorant of the way DH was before I married him, but I would be lying. His mother showed me his room before we got married and told me that he used to be a neatness freak until he turned into a horrible teenager. She tried everything to break him of his bad habits, but it didn't work for her either. It's funny, some things he is extremely fanatical about (dust on blinds, for one) and on other things, let's face it, he is a SLOB. Same with DS. Personal grooming, he can't be beat. His room, well, I wouldn't be surprised if "Ben" (the rat...movie...Michael Jackson) moved in to stay. I keep telling DS we will have a permanent guest if he doesn't clean up his act (room).

And, yes, I can go without picking up for a week and the house will be piled high with "stuff" and they never notice. I think that is why I hate housework. No one notices. When DH and DS go somewhere together for the weekend, like hunting, my house stays so clean and I get so much of my playing done.

I have to laugh at DH when he gets onto DS about his "mess" and "don't leave things for your mom to pick up" and "it's not your mom's job to pick up after you". DH is the worst of the two. I guess since it's only the two of them that I have to pick up after, I just go ahead and do most of it. I do, however, leave a couple of things that I MAKE them pick up. I just can't stand food/drinks to stay out. Dirty laundry can stay put.

I will say that I much prefer them the way they are than to have super neat freaks. My aunt was married to a neat freak that EVERYTHING had to be in a certain spot and in a certain way. Everything in the house and yard had to be PERFECT. Like to drove her nuts. I like clean, not perfection.

[Suzan]

Well if we are having a confessional. It is the same in my house. DH walks in the door. And takes his shirt off hangs it over a chair then comes off the socks and shoes under the coffee table. Then he complains when the dogs steal his socks. DD well if you could get in her room you would declare it a disaster. I swear. She has a bunk bed/futon couch and the top bunk is piled so high with clothes and stuff. I surpised the bunk hasn't collapsed. And she has not one but two dressers stuffed full of clothes, and then clothes, makeup and other stuff all over the place. And tell me why she has to have her cheerleading megaphone, on the top bunk also. Please she hasn't been a cheerleader for almost 4 years. I worry that poor little Michael (her 5 lb chihuahua) is going to be buried alive. And dishes, do you think they can rinse and stack. NO that is impossible.

[kim]

hehe. I am SOOOOo glad my house is not the only one like that!! Makes me feel a TON better. Maybe we need to make a sign for the front door. Something like "I'm not a SLOB, I just live with them."

I have been putting new contact paper down in all the drawers and shelves around the house. DH's bathroom sink has three drawers with the top one for his toothpaste, etc. It is so full of junk and for years I have refused to go through it because I don't know what is important or not. Well, I just had to put new contact paper in and I didn't want to skip his drawer, sooooo I just dumped all his stuff into a plastic bag (actually two plastic bags from Walmart) and then re-did his drawer. He was looking for something and had to dig in the bag to try and find it, mumbling something about having to go through and trash a bunch of stuff in the bag.

I haven't done his dresser drawers and I quit putting his laundry away years ago. I put all of his in a laundry basket, nicely folded. Right now he has about three baskets under the bed and two in the attic. He has clothes he hasn't worn in years, will never wear again, and he has no room in his dresser. If I get rid of something, he will have a fit because "I was going to wear that", and so it piles up. (He is in self-denial...he actually thinks that he will be able to fit into some of his old clothes. Of course, I am the same way, but I have room for all my clothes.)

[Suzan]

On behalf of the hubby though, when our dryer died, he would take all the laundry to the laundrymat and wash dry and fold. And Stuff like my shirts and things I don't like completely dried he would hang up and bring home nice. And when it comes to mopping the tile in the house, he starts and one end and I at the other and we work really hard till it is done.

[kim]

Yeah, they definantly have their pluses, just not in picking up after themselves. I do have to say that when I was studying for my CPA exam way back when, DH did all the housework for me. This was pre-housekeeper and pre-DS. And I mean ALL the housework. I did nothing but go to work, come home and study.