Seattle, WA

I looked away for the briefest of moments and October was gone; the year following quickly in its footsteps. I should gotten more cleaning done today. The family is arriving en masse tomorrow to do the annual Komen walk with me. While I am looking forward to seeing them I spend days before their arrival doing the massive house cleaning. It’s at times like this that I seriously regret having a 4000+ house.

Part of the reason it takes me so long to clean is because although I’m perfectly able to live in a clutter filled messy house, once I begin the cleaning process, I’m positively anal about it. I can spend an entire day on one room and sometimes not even manage to finish. I’ve actually spent several days on the kitchen alone and I haven’t even done the done the floor yet. Well, ok, I vacuumed it. Probably twice and likely I’ll vacuum it again before I steam it clean with my Enviro Steamer. I love my Enviro Steamer. It requires no cleaning products, just water and my floors look great when I’m done. I’d say it’s pretty environmentally friendly.

Kitchens, like laundry, are never-ending. You get it all nice and pristine and then you make the next meal and presto, it’s dirty again, and you have to start all over. Yesterday, I cleaned the windowsills and the windows. I cleaned all the glass in the china hutch which led to washing the knickknacks which led to my wishing I owned less shite. I washed down all the counter tops as well. Today I cleaned the baseboards, washed down the cabinets, re-washed the counter tops, vacuumed the fan blades, lighting fixtures and walls and cleaned the stove. Chip, bless his heart, cleaned the refrigerator. Cleaning the refrigerator and tossing all the leftovers that seem to accumulate is a must when my family comes to town because cooking for 10+ people tends to lead to even more leftovers and space becomes a premium. I put clean linens on the guest beds as well.

I escaped the house for a few hours and ran to Costco for a few supplies and stopped in at a sale being held by a member of my cake decorating club. A club member lost her store due to flooding several months ago and since she didn’t have insurance she went out of business. The sale was everything that was salvaged from the flood. There were some major bargains and I managed to spend a good $60 but I got some great buys. Now I will have to figure out where to put even more cake stuff. Like I don’t have enough already.

Tomorrow morning I get up at the crack of dawn to work out with my running group. Then I need to high-tail it home to finish cleaning at a decidedly faster pace because the family will likely start to arrive by 1pm at the latest.

I hope that you, dear readers, will be taking advantage of some of the fun things going on this weekend!

Next week I shall begin the post family visit cleaning and initiate crazy holiday cleaning. Oh yeah, and as if that’s not enough, I have two cakes to do. One wedding reception cake, though it should be easier than normal because the bride wants a pineapple upside down cake and not a traditional wedding cake, and one sweet 16 cake.

I have a feeling that November is going to slip by even faster than October did.