I Will Blog

But not today. ;-)

I'm toooooooooooo tired. It's been a long and crazy however-long since I last blogged. I have my "blog notes" intact so it'll be way too lengthy when I finally do get around to blogging. I had hopes of tonight being the night, but I just can't. I've been on a mad cleaning spree around here today and I'm beat. I spot cleaned the couches, then moved them out of the way, vacuumed the evil rug, vacuumed the underneath side of the evil rug (I'm givin' it what for now!), then got a sponge and a towel and a bucket of Mop~n~Glow/water solution and scrubbed floors and baseboards. I kept thinking it was leaving a bit of a residue, so I rinsed two or three times being careful to not get things too wet and to dry everything up immediately--I'm doing my best to not ruin Sister Powell's floors. That's very important to me. :-) Rinsing still didn't seem to help, so I thought maybe the Mop~n~Glow solution must be the problem. I Googled. Found a whole slew of people saying you're supposed to use 1 cup white vinegar to 1 gallon of hot water to scrub your wood floors with. I gave it a shot, but wasn't any more pleased with the result. I Googled some more and found a whole lot of other people saying DON'T use vinegar and water--it will dull your floors and ruin the finish over time. Aaaaauuuuuggggghhhhhhhh! Then it hit me... the FINISH. I'm not used to having floors that have a "finish" on them. I got to thinking about what I was using to scrub with... one of those kitchen sponges--the ones that are soft on one side and a little scratchy on the other side. That scratchy side is terrific at getting stuff off the floor. It's what I've always used on my floors. But upon further reflection (!)... on a wood floor with a "finish"?! ~sigh~ What a dummy. I've been so careful to not get things to wet and warp the wood, but I never thought about a finish. Mom says there will be products that will help bring the shine back. Yeah, when Google failed I finally called Mom. Should've started with her to begin with. ANYWAY... though I failed in my heartfelt desire and attempt to not damage Sister Powell's floors, at least everything that I dulled belongs under furniture. Ha! The couches and evil rug cover it all up. After that I switched over to a delicate solution and a nice, soft cloth. You can't really SCRUB with a nice, soft cloth, but neither can you scratch the finish off the floor. It's a delicate balance I suppose and I struggle finding it, being a newbie and all. I have learned this: wood floors are not my friend. What's with a floor that you can't scrub?! I'm a pretty proficient cleaner. Don't let that fool you. You could show up unannounced and 95% of the time my house would not produce sufficient proof of that statement. I'm a great cleaner, but I'm a horrible maintainer--and things seem to fall apart way too fast at my house. Nonetheless, if I know that it was really and truly clean, way deep down all-of-the-grubbiness-been-scrubbed-away kind of clean sometime recently, I feel so much better about my life and my whole little world seems to run more smoothly. Thus the need to scrub. But not wood floors--not anymore! At least the places that are still nice and shiny. ;-) I've probably exaggerated just a little bit--it's not THAT bad. I hope. ;-) Sister Powell, I can take pictures for you if you're worried about it. We already have another confession to make about the kitchen table. Forgot about that one 'til just now. ~sigh~ Are you ready to kick us out yet??? ;-) ANYWAY, I've been scrubbing baseboards and window panes and the kitchen table and chairs and washing the chair pads and who-knows-what-all. It takes a long time to scrub (or gingerly massage with a soft cloth, once you learn your lesson) on your hands and knees, especially when you're getting all of the baseboards and such, so I didn't finish today before I ran out of steam. I spent quite a bit of time trying to re-figure the kids' school work and add an extra week onto the end of their school year to make up for the week we just lost--stuff like that in between scrubbing and caressing the floor. And they all required LOTS of help in school today. That always wears me out! In any case, I have hopes of finishing all of the "ginger massaging" up tomorrow. It will feel so good to have that done. It makes me smile just thinking about it. :-)

I said I wasn't going to blog. It doesn't really count as a blog if everything is crammed into one paragraph, right? ;-) I'll try to play catch up here real soon and let you know what all we've been up to, but I'm headed to bed early tonight. The floors will be waiting for me come morning. And that dastardly rug. I'm going to vacuum it right off the bat tomorrow. I may even get up and do it at three in the morning, just to take it off guard. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!