Spring cleaning

Spent all of today -- chilly, and now rainy -- cleaning the house. I've been wanting to teach Rachel how to do chores for a long time, and so today was the day.

I taught her how to do laundry and told her (after we cleaned up her room) that keeping things neat in her bedroom was her job from now on. (We didn't have time to go through her winter clothes, and it has been so chilly here that I'm putting that off until we have at least two weeks of 70+-degree weather. Same with my own clothes.

Drew taught her how to clean the sink and the toilet. Those will be her chores on Wednesday night.

And I reinforced how to sweep under the table -- she'll be responsible for that, too, after she finishes dinner at night. I told her that she also has to clear all our plates and glasses after dinner, not just her own.

Hopefully this will stick. I am completely exhausted -- I also baked two kinds of bread as part of a deal one of the parents at McKinley won for last year's auction. I was gong to dive into my messy office, but Drew says it wouldn't be family fun night unless I joined him and Rachel downstairs for pizza, cupcakes and a movie -- probably Pippi Longstocking tonight -- and so I said, sure.

The desk will just have to wait until next Friday.

***

I was looking at Rachel sitting on her bed, reading, looking all grown-up, and told her, "Someday, you'll look at your own children the way I'm looking at you now."

And she replied, "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, 'she's growing up, and there's nothing I can do to stop it.'"

YES.