But This Is Soooo Boring!

You know that kid who just doesn't want to do something so he moans and groans about it endlessly, making himself, and you, increasingly miserable by the minute?  You start off trying to encourage him, spouting words of wisdom in a cheerful, sing-song voice such as, "The sooner you get started, the sooner you'll finish," and "It's not that bad.  Really."  After a while, however, you realize a person can only take so much "But it's soooo boring," and "I don't wanna do it" before reaching the boiling-over point, and you find yourself quoting Nike ("Just do it!") in a somewhat less cheerful, sing-song voice.  Today I realized something.

I am that kid.

Now, in my own defense, I realized this while cleaning house, and I'm not sure moaning and groaning about housecleaning and trying to avoid it altogether should even count.  I mean, what sane person wants to spend a perfectly gorgeous Saturday cleaning house?  Not me, that's for dang sure.  Today I had to clean though.  My husband and his brother Jon signed up for a half-marathon that's taking place tomorrow, so plans were made for Jon, who lives a couple hours away, to spend the night with us.  In our house.  Which meant it had to be clean.  I can't have people thinking I'm a slob.

I can honestly say I did clean house all day today.  But I did a lot of other stuff, too.  Every time I passed by the computer, I came up with some reason to stop.  I wonder if anyone's read my blog?  Let me check.  Do I have any urgent emails that demand my attention?  What should I buy from my friend's Norwex Facebook party?  What is Norwex?  Let me Google it and see if it's really worth my money.  (I should probably point out the irony of this part.  If you are not familiar with Norwex, they sell cleaning products.  Cleaning.  The very thing I was actively avoiding.)  Ooh, someone posted something on Facebook.  I really need to read that.  And so on and so on.

Then the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello."

"Hi, Jon.  How are you?  Are you on your way?"

"I'm about 25 minutes away.  I just wanted to make sure someone was home."

"Yeah, we're home.  We'll see you when you get here.  Bye."

Oh crap!  25 minutes?  Suddenly I was aware of the 532 things I hadn't quite gotten to.  It was just little stuff really.  He'd be sleeping on clean sheets and the guest bathroom was clean.   That's what really matters, right?  So what if we had mail piled up on the dining room table?  Would he judge me if I had a few dirty dishes in the sink?  Actually, I knew this wasn't about my brother-in-law; it was about me.  I was raised in a very neat, tidy, and clean house.  That's the way I like my house to be.  I just don't like being the one to make it that way.

If only I hadn't wasted so much time.  I could have gotten everything done, no sweat.  Okay, maybe a little sweat.  But my house would be clean from top to bottom.  It would be done and I wouldn't have to worry about it.  Not for a few days at least.  No wonder I don't like cleaning.  Next weekend I'm going to have to do it all over again.

I think I feel another "But I don't wanna do it" coming on.