this is no democracy

Last night while I ate supper, I was thinking of the millions of things that need to be done in this house. And knowing that I would have to do a marathon cleaning to even get close to getting it done. And that would mean an entire Saturday. Cleaning. Dusting. Organizing. Washing. Scrubbing. And I knew I didn't want to give up an entire Saturday to do any of that. I had to come up with a plan.

So I declared a Momma Rule.

I don't use it often. The best Momma Rule I have ever enacted is the laundry rule: everyone over the age of ten must wash, dry, fold and put away his/her own laundry. It works wonderfully. I pick up some slack during the summer and during Christmas break when I'm not working, and maybe when I know someone has had a bad week, but most of the time I'm only responsible for my own laundry. I have to admit that there have been occasional catastrophes - like the time the big boy washed and dried a black gel pen with an entire load of new spring shirts and shorts. And EVERYTHING had black ink on it. Luckily, I found a cleaner that got most of it out - and he wore the rest with a little black ink on it.

Another Momma Rule - the momma doesn't take out the garbage. And in the last few years, I rarely have. And I have to say that Baby Jus is pretty good about doing it without even being told.

I occasionally pull a single night the-one-who-cooks-doesn't-clean-the-kitchen Momma Rule. But honestly I try not to use too many. Because I'm frugal with the power, they don't question me too much when I proclaim a new rule.

So because I have a few Momma Rules to use. And because I needed a plan to get this house clean without giving up my Saturdays forever and always. Last night I walked into the living room and proclaimed, "Momma Rule. Beginning tonight, everyone is required to clean for 30 minutes each night." There are no rules about what has to be done, no schedule. Everyone gets to choose the job he/she wants to do on that particular night. The only thing that doesn't count is laundry.

I love Momma Rule.

During the three weeks or so that I was unable to blog I had such great ideas for posts. I started so many interesting, intelligent, intriguing posts in my head. Did I put pen to paper? Did I record any of those ideas? No. Today I spent about two hours riding the lawn mower. When my sister-in-law mows her yard, she puts in her headphones and jams; I never do that. I have always used lawn mower time to collect my thoughts - plan lessons, dream up the plan for carrying out whatever endeavor looms on the horizon. I have discussed this a bit before. My family sometimes accuse me of being a huge procrastinator, and I am a bit of one. But much of the time that I am doing other things, like riding the mower, I am thinking and planning. When I was trying to finish college, I often had several papers to write and more than one novel to read. I usually can't just sit down and write; I have to mull it over while doing something else. Many of my essays were planned as I cooked dinner or went for a walk. Today when I got on that mower, I might as well have put in the headphones. My mind was blank. Or maybe spinning so fast that nothing could drop out enough to focus my thoughts.

I have had a very busy week helping to decorate for my nephews wedding. And I am moving into my it's-almost-August-school-starting-what-am-I-going-to-teach panic mode that hits me every summer even after almost 20 years of teaching. There are some other issues just buzzing around in this head of mine. I am blaming all of this for my lack of focus. Am I the only one who lets so much get to spinning around in my head that it can't fall out? Like that ride at the fair where you stand up and the thing spins so fast that you are held against the wall and couldn't move no matter how hard you tried. It affects my sleep. I wake up with a million things running through my mind. I feel like I could think clearly if I could just get a good night's sleep; but I can't get a good night's sleep because I can't clear my thoughts. It's a vicious circle. Are there any men out there who do this? Is it a woman thing? A momma thing? A crazy thing?

So many ideas are lost when I am in one of these sleep deprived phases. I wake up in the middle of the night with a great idea, or I think of something when I am nowhere near a computer. And when I can finally get to the computer, the  idea is completely gone or is missing a key component. In hopes of grabbing a few of those potentially brilliant moments, I bought a cute little journal last week. And it has been on the kitchen table since I brought it in the house. Until yesterday, I honestly haven't had time to even think about it, and as I've said already, today was a total blank.

After mowing, I worked on some lesson plans for the new school year. I managed not to take that much wanted nap this afternoon, and now I am very sleepy. I am going to take that journal and put it on my bedside just in case I wake up with a great idea spinning around in this head of mine. And if I don't wake up, maybe I'll get enough rest so that I can focus on one particular thing instead of not focusing on a million things.