Our house

is a very, very, very fine house.

Too bad it's not a very, very clean house.

But it's still in the running for my clean house countdown! We live in this house, and we do activities that use lots of stuff (guitars with their cases, music stands and music, books, workbooks, notebooks, pens, pencils, the CD player and CDs ....) so the only way we are going to achieve that pared-down elegant look is to move out.

Cleaning on Wednesday went pretty well this week. Wednesday is turning into a crazy day, and I was very concerned we wouldn't get our work done. So I did half of it myself before the kids got up. The beauty part of this for me, though, is that it was so clear: I am doing them a favor! This is not my job here! They owe me!

So I feel comfortable saying that we haven't lost it yet. Lesley has been a cheerleader and well-wisher, and I'm so grateful for that. I feel as though I'm accepting her good vibes under false pretenses, though, because I was only ever trying to keep the two downstairs levels clean. That means five (or six, if you think the breakfast nook is it's own room) rooms and an entry way get maintained, while upstairs six rooms and a hallway steadily deteriorate. But this way I don't cringe when people come to the door! That's a good thing, right?

So, for the record, this house has been officially clean for (drum roll) 14 days!