Mormon Bloggers

The past couple of days I have had a surge of energy and the irresistible urge to clean my house.  Either it’s because my baby gave me a little more sleep or because I finally got so fed up with the way my place looks, adrenaline took over.  I don’t really care how it happened, but I’m pleased with the results.

I’m a housewife.  I know, not very exciting by its description.  But I have really come to appreciate how nice it is to have everything clean and organized after growing up in a clean and organized home, then moving into my own home and realizing that things don’t clean and organize themselves.  My mom kept a really nice home and still does.

Some people think housework is demeaning.  I don’t think so.  Let’s face it.  It’s no fun living in a really messy home where you don’t know where anything is.  Tripping on stuff and stubbing toes stinks.  Piles of dishes everywhere, leaving maybe a small space to make a sandwich can drive you nuts.  Since the cleaning elves are never coming, who’s going to do the work?  Whoever is home the most, that’s who.  If my husband and I worked full-time, I would seriously demand a housekeeper come once a week or so because I would find it completely overwhelming to keep on top of it.

When you’re a stay at home mom, it makes sense that you would be the person to do the majority of the housework just because you are home.  It’s also a great opportunity to teach your kids to work.  My husband works hard all day long and it’s not like his job is luxurious either.  We’re a team though, and he comes home and helps out with the housework.  There’s a lot more to my life than hanging out at home and some days the kids require so much attention, I’m lucky to get the dishes and a load of laundry done.  Sometimes when I start doing the dishes, my husband will ask me, “Hey, why are you doing my job?”

When the house is wreck, it’s more than unsightly (I call it visual noise).  Tensions rise, we become more irritable, the kids seem to act up more, and getting ready for school becomes a nightmare due to lost socks, shoes, lunchboxes, etc..  A sister in our church, Julie B. Beck, gave a talk that struck a nerve with a lot of people as she mentioned that Mormon women should be the best homemakers.

That sounded chauvinistic to some people or limiting, but there’s a lot more to making a home than having everything tidy.  It’s the atmosphere – what shows you allow, the tone, music, love, teaching, and so many other things that contribute to a house becoming a haven for your family.  I see the value in that more than ever.  There are very few places where a person can feel peace and security.  I think creating a wonderful place to raise children is a very valuable activity!  Yes, it is tedious.  Yes, it is hard work, but so are a lot of things that are very important.  And your children aren’t going to grow up to be the adults you want them to be without a lot of your attention, as much as we would all love to spend all our days fulfilling our wildest dreams.  It is a sacrifice to devote so much of our time and efforts to our kids, but well worth it. 

I’m actually pretty excited to be raising boys to grow up and be awesome husbands who will help their wives (and when I get cleaning, sometimes it’s contagious for them and they get really enthusiastic, like my son folding laundry above), take an active part in raising their own children, and assist a great deal in creating a home centered around the Lord.

Having made a great deal of progress today in my home, I have this wonderful feeling of satisfaction and hope I will remember in the morning how nice it will feel at the end of the day.  I have a goal to have this place looking better than ever by Valentine’s Day as a gift to my husband (so good that I will actually want to decorate it all romantic like) and a hope that having a well-run home will start to come more naturally to me, from cleaning to staying on top of all of my children’s needs.

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