That's great, rags!

Yesterday I got a lead on who might be the perfect cleaning lady to come help us out occasionally. It will be hard to pry the bucks out of the grocery budget, but it's long overdue to have a little help dealing with this too-huge house.

For me, where it fits is this... my most functional, most productive time in life was in a neat little apartment my son and I had. It was on a scale I could DEAL with; the upstairs f our present rental house are real close to its size and I have done pretty well taking care of that. It gets about half the dust of the downstairs (which sits between gravel road dust and Dog World dirt/dust blowing in). It's so ironic-- seeing the old apartment in the upstairs-of-now, because the apartment was a garden apartment sunk about 6 steps down below the grass outside the windows. No walkout, no patio, but not a basement apartment, either. Just a few steps below grade, set in flat countryside. With enormous windows letting in a LOT of light. The scale and the light, here, have to be on the top floor of a high-ceilinged house, because the sunlight is hemmed in by mountain ridges snaking their way across all the landscapes.

Anyway, in that apartment, I had achieved non-clutter, and it was easy to keep it picked up. A great cleaning woman came twice a month and just did the finishing touches-- my job was pickup, and kitchen sanitation. Her job was to make it glow and smell pretty. And her regular visits made a structure within which I could stay on top of my part of the job.

Poor Hardi has been trying to keep the downstairs here under control, because he can do the heavier cleaning I still can't. But he is not cut out for "finish" dusting. It needs a girl's eye, and a woman's touch. I've decided to let it be someone else's eye and hands. Ministries are calling me OUT, and Hardi and I both need to come home to an orderly landing zone.

So-- friends who are moving have a lady who meets our requirements coming to them on the same schedule I want, and I hope to take their slot as soon as they leave it open!

~Susan