Cleaning

Friday, I cleaned the house.

Well, at least the upstairs of the house.

This may not seem monumental to most of you.  You're thinking "And...?"

But I don't clean.  I hate cleaning.  Throughout my adult life, I would struggle with wanting a clean house but having no drive to actually do it.  Usually, by the time I was done picking up all the stuff that was never put away, I was too tired to actually clean.

Several years ago, a friend told me to cut myself some slack and just have someone come clean for me.  And yet, I procrastinated.  I was sure that I could stay on top of it.  When we moved to Texas, I talked to some of my fellow teachers about it and, low and behold, they had people who cleaned their houses.

Now, let's be honest.  Part of me wanted to believe I could do it all, part of me didn't want to spend the money, and part of me was dealing with the husband who didn't want to spend the money.  I finally took the plunge and had a company come out.  I walked through the door that evening and like magic, everything was sparkling and smelled good.  Even Luis agreed to have them keep coming out.

But during the summer I'm not working and it seems wrong to pay someone to clean my house when I am home.

Thus, I cleaned part of my house on Friday.

And I was so exhausted that I needed Saturday to recoup.  So I took a day off from doing anything house related (aside from picking up some paint that you'll hear more about later) and had a day for me.

I went and got a pedicure.  You know you are way overdue when the lady picks up your foot, looks at your heels, and just shakes her head.  Now my toes are beach-ready for Florida (and lake-ready for Illinois).

Afterward, I went and got a haircut.  My hair was WAY too long and my go-to style had become a pony-tail.  About 6-7 inches shorter and some highlights, and Ta-Da!  These are before and after pictures from my Summer Reading Challenge Tweets.  In the before, you see my standard pony-tail and after, my shorter, lighter do.  Yea!