Yesterday I had a professional housecleaner for the first time. It was sort of MY gift for dd's birthday. Actually, my husband agreed to it because it would lessen my stress in preparing for the big birthday party on Saturday. Both sides of the family are getting together for the first time since the hospital one year ago.

I was surprised at my reaction to the freshly-cleaned house and to the whole "having someone in to clean" experience. For one thing, I did NOT like having someone in my house for nearly four hours, especially someone with odd piercings and a tattoo that should NOT have been visible to the public, if you know what I mean. By the end of the day, I was inspired. My new goal in life is not to let my house get to the point where I feel the need for hired help again. Today I've been following the "clean as you go" policy to try and eliminate the need for heavy cleaning as much as possible.

I was also inspired in other ways. Because finally the whole house is clean at once, my mind felt free to leap to other projects. I cut out a jumper for C., and I'm actually going to make it this time. Sewing is something I have wanted to learn for a very long time. But I've been hampered by guilt -- how dare I do some fun homemaking project like sewing when the bathtub is dirty? (Interestingly, the guilt doesn't keep me off the internet, but let's not go there, haha.)

So now the house is clean and neat, the ice cream cake is in the freezer, the gifts are wrapped, and the balloons are hiding in my car. I found a pink and green butterfly balloon at Dollar Tree, and C. LOVES pink and green -- how cool is that?