She's Still Got It

18 years of adulthood
9 years of this blessed marriage
8 years of mommyhood
35 years of adventures....and she's still got it.

"She," of course, being me. "It?" you ask? Skillz. Organizational-kick-butt-getting-that-house-clean skillz.

Alright, alright what's the big deal? I'll tell you what the big deal is.

Sometimes I forget what a full time job homeschooling is. Normal life for me is such that I have time to keep the dust off the furniture, meals on the table and our underwear clean. Just the basics. I spring cleaned my laundry room a few weeks ago (during a school week) and it took me three days.

So I'm reveling in Spring break. I've taken two weeks, and I'm so grateful for the time not just because I've gotten to Spring clean but because I've been horribly sick. Last week I had an awful stomach flu with the rest of the family and this week I've got a knock-down-dragout cold. So the time off is great. I've been resting so much and just being puny little me. And when I'm not so puny, I've been busy;

• steam cleaned all the carpets in the house
• finished painting our study/homeschool room
• deep cleaned my Master closet
• deep cleaned the coat/game closet
• set up a school plan for the rest of the year
• prepped for school for the last stretch
• started organization of the homeschool/study space

It's a good feeling, two weeks have been a perfect amount of time. I've gotten a lot done, and had time to play with the kiddos. And napped nearly every day.

But I digress, what I'm enjoying is the fact that I can get so much done in such a short period of time. When we're schooling, organization and deep cleaning fall by the wayside. Schooling can be relatively unmeasureable, sometimes I don't realize how much I get done in a day. But a comforting thought is that if I can get so much measureable work done, the unmeasureable work is significant and oh so important.

Seeing the look on Nate's face when he realizes he read an entire book
is my reward. When Eli can't get over himself because he was the first
of the three to memorize the American presidents,
there is my paycheck.
Reading another of Joey's detailed and adventurous books,
that's all the milestone I need.

So, I started this entry thinking on how great it is to have some time off to get things done. How nice it is to see that I can still get it done. But I'm finishing like this: the most important work to be done in the world is oftentimes unmeasurable. I tend to like measurable work, but it's the unmeasurable that is most valuable. Loving, teaching, playing, looking our people in the eyes, talking to them...this is most important work.

And so I look forward to back to school next week. And my house is pretty stinking clean. Ahhhh....that's important too.

A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable.
Louis Kahn