Words of Wisdom

Youth is wasted on the young.

Tuesday 9 October 2007

Cleans Like a White Tornado.....

Phew. What a day! Tomorrow we have a property evaluator coming at 8.30am and although you and I know that the cleaniness or untidiness of a property does not reeeeally affect its value in terms of bank valuations....the 18 year old and the 9 year old don't know that!!!!! :-D

Initially Himself got all excited and wanted to mulch the garden and do all sorts of cosmetic things but as I said...that only matters when you're trying to sell it! Nevertheless, Second Son was under strict instructions to clean out his area. He has a bedroom and 'Den' on the lower level of the house, with its own ensuite bathroom. I do NOT clean this. In fact I try never to go into his room unless there is a National Crisis....like when the smell of unwashed sheets and clothes starts to permeate the hallway >:-(

As you can imagine, nothing much gets done down there, so the thought of having to show a valuer around it struck fear into all our hearts. But I must say he has done himself proud. He even came up and asked us to inspect and apart from his complete failure to look up and see all the 'daddy-long-legs' webs around the ceiling, he has done a damn fine job! He also cleaned out and rearranged his Den, liberating several dozen plates, glasses and bowls in the process.

Even Small Boy has been 'on board'. He helped his dad wash all the windows on the balcony and has put everything away today with minimal fuss. Hooray. Hooray.

For my part I have washed several floors, cleaned the kitchen, more interminable loads of laundry, dried and folded, cleaned the shower recess (I HATE that job) and caught up on a bit of paperwork. I am also making a HUGE pot of pumpkin soup to freeze for school lunches next week. Oh, and I finally got around to calling the glazier, the window lock repair man and the irrigation repair man. Phew! We have had masking tape on one of the balcony windows for over six months now. (a little incident with a Small Boy and a stone followed by a door banging in the wind....=cracked glass from top to bottom.)

The place is actually almost looking respectable again.

Meanwhile, I heard from the Baby Angel yesterday and it seems she has been learning to scuba dive!!!! Good grief. I am well impressed. Aparently there are photos so look forward to some of her shots on her return. She'll be home on Friday. It has been lovely and quiet and I have had lots to keep me busy but I must admit to missing her more and more of late. I cleaned her room the other day and felt quite bereft.

Right, off to catch up on a few blogs before an early night. Mmmmmmm is that my pumpkin soup I smell........

7 comments:

Melody A. said...

Oh no!! I love pumpkin soup!!! And anything and everything pumpkin. But my kiddos won't eat it yet.

And you went from beach vacation to cleaning house- sounds about right.

Brittany said...

Pumpkin soup! I REALLY want pumpkin soup. What a tease! lol

YAY for cleaning! We cleaned our house like mad people when the bank came to do our re-financing. I knew it wouldn't help the value, BUT I wanted the bank who was giving us hundreds of thousands of dollars (ok... we're not rich...but a whole lota money ;>) to know that they were giving money to clean people. lol Plus, the hubby jumped in on the action and cleaned the things I didn't want to!! woo!

Christina said...

"a National Crisis....like when the smell of unwashed sheets and clothes starts to permeate the hallway"

that really made me laugh!

I'm wondering if mayeb I should tell hubby the appraiser is coming out, and see if that helps motivate him in the cleaning department, as has happened with your menfolk. ;o)

And now I want pumpkin soup, too!

Miss Betty Fjord said...

I note great interest in the pumpkin soup! For those ladies and gents who (like me) suffer from a little excess lard from time to time - here's my recipe for ABSOLUTELY NO FAT pumpin soup:

500g pumpkin
250g carrot
1 can diced tomatoes
6 cups chicken stock (from cubes)

Directions: Chuck it all in a saucepan and boil. Cool and chuck in a blender.

Then the good bit - add a good handful of shredded fresh basil. I can seriously recommend it!

Anonymous said...

carolyn- you never change- what a joy!! - funny and as acerbically observant as ever...miss your musings so was lovely to dip into this...once i'd establised name 'labels' got into it... you n cooking!! pumpkin soup for the week!!! whats happened to you?? and as for all this preoccupation with 'housework' and how to get the better of it??- chill baby!!

great to hear you having fun at weekends (what else are they for)and so much the better to concentrate on.
just popped this on to let you know you thought of as ever,
love to Him, bestie and of course most of all baby angel n you. take care n i/we want to join in the games ... kiah loves them- habve you tried 'ego' yet- you really should. lol cx dx kikixxxxxxxxxxx

Anonymous said...

Hope it went well. The cleaning thing would make me so happy. I am loving our new uncluttered house (but not enough to wan tto stay here) We even got our 2 broken windows replaced yesterday. Now we just have to put the finishing touches on (you know quarter-round and paint and stuff) Regardless, I'm sure with a clean house, you've got a great feeling of accomplishment

Stacy said...

Glad that everyone got motivated to clean! I can imagine that you don't want to go into Second Son's bedroom...safer that way. ;) At least he got it nicely cleaned.

I have found that if we have dinner guests over that motivates us to go through a thorough cleaning instead of the spot stuff we otherwise live with.

OH, as to you comment about my cut...I haven't done it yet. I'm hoping to get the time in the next few weeks. I want to do it on a weekend and have time to dye it RED again before work on Monday. No time this weekend, but I think I will have time next Saturday. Eek!