Listening: Janis Ian's Between the Lines, one of my favorite albums when I was in high school. I haven't really listened to this album for more than 15 years, and I'm surprised at how much I still like it.

Better than a Root Canal

I spent today doing something I absolutely detest: housecleaning. I'm not giving away any deep, dark secrets here. Anyone foolhardy enough to visit us at home will quickly ascertain that cleaning must be pretty far down on my list of favorite activities, somewhere between watching televised golf and getting a root canal.

Part of the problem, as I've said before, is that we are five people living in a little house. It is one of those semi-detached city houses, long and narrow with one room leading into another on the first floor. You enter through the front door into a small living room with an area that could be a dining area behind it but that currently contains the computer and my office stuff. Behind that is the narrow kitchen, and behind the kitchen is a hallway that runs past the tiny pantry closet and our only bathroom and straight to the back door. Upstairs are three small bedrooms, all woefully deficient in floor space, let alone closet space. We have a basement and an attic, both filled with things we are storing or saving for yard sales: boxes of clothes, books, outgrown toys, memorabilia, wrapping paper, baby equipment, etc.

People who've never had children have no clue as to how much stuff comes with them. I know I certainly didn't. Toys: the ones they are using and the one they've outgrown but you've put aside because you think you might be able to sell them at a garage sale. Books: scattered all over the place, especially on the floor where you might--and probably will--slip on them. And most of all, clothes: boxes of clothes passed down from friends or older siblings that they can't yet wear, drawers overflowing with clothes they are currently wearing, boxes of clothes they've outgrown but that you've not yet had a chance to sort for giving away.

It is amazing how much crap a family can accumulate, even a relatively unmaterialistic family like ours. And because it is strewn all over the house, covering most surfaces, it is hard to keep the house clean in the midst of all that clutter.

Ahhh, who am I kidding? I'd still hate cleaning even if my house was as clutter-free as one of those featured in House Beautiful. Of course, if my house were one of those houses in House Beautiful, I'd just hire someone else to clean and be done with it.

Most of the other responsibilities that go along with being a stay-at-home, work-at-home mother are things that I enjoy. Taking care of the kids: well, that's why I'm here isn't it? Sure, dealing with small children and their needs can be frustrating at times, but ultimately it is the most rewarding thing I've ever done. I can't imagine missing out on this time with the twins, and I'm only sorry I didn't get to stay home with Daniel when he was younger.

I don't mind cooking, either. Preparing nourishing, tasty meals is another way of taking care of my family. There are tangible rewards to the time I spend cooking.

Where is the payoff for housecleaning, I wonder. After the hours spent dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing, polishing: where is the reward? The kitchen floor looks shiny, the bathroom sparkles--for about ten minutes. Then the dirt starts to build up again, and within a few days you'd never know that I'd just spent hours cleaning.

Our kitchen floor is my particular nemesis. It has a nubbly texture, with millions of tiny pores that seem to be designed solely for the purpose of collecting dirt. The only way to get it absolutely clean is to get down on hands and knees and scrub with a stiff brush and, let me tell you, I am not a hands-and-knees kind of gal. If it doesn't come clean with a mop, it ain't gonna get clean.

It is now 8 p.m. The kids are in bed, the house is clean, and we're expecting our company from Maine any minute. If you don't mind, I'm going to push myself away from the computer and take a look around at my clean house. It probably won't look this good again until the next time we're expecting company.

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