Parent to Parent By Jodie Lynn
Moments for Mom By Elisabeth Corcoran
Ask A Twin Mommy By Cheryl Lage
Mothering By Heart By Cheri Fuller
Jelly Mom By Lisa Barker
Family Check-up By Sheila Wray Gregoire
Simplifying Motherhood By Trish Berg
Making the Most of Marriage By Paula Friedrichsen
The Crumbs of Life
October, 2006
By Trish Berg
When he lifted the couch, I was afraid to look. You never know what could be hiding underneath your couch when there are kids living in the house. Kids are great at stuffing, hiding, shoving and tucking things under something just to avoid picking it up and putting it away.
As my husband, Mike, lifted the heavy green plaid piece of furniture, I felt myself wince a little, like when you go to the eye doctor and he blows that puff of air in your eye to test for something or other. I always shirk away before the air puff ever comes. Just knowing what is coming is sometimes enough to make you wince.
When I peeked out form under my eyelids, I saw the usual suspects - used Kleenexes, scattered toys, a lost sock (dirty of course), the lost remote control, and a missing shoe we had been searching for since May. Then I saw it, and I almost gasped out loud.
An old sippy cup with something alive inside. Well, it may not have actually been alive, but it looked like it might be pulsating. It appeared to be some sort of brown substance that had solidified over the weeks, who knows how many.
I told Mike, “Don’t even open it. Just throw the whole sippy cup away!” Maybe we shouldn’t have ventured that far. Now I was pondering what else lurked beneath the dirt in my home.
Did the dust bunnies have company? Were there other sippy cup surprises out there waiting to smell up my house and my life? Dare I begin moving things around to see what was beneath?
Never being a coward, I decided to go on a cleaning spree. It was actually kind of addictive. Then again, I am a little bit of a neat nick at heart. The scent of Murphy’s Oil Soap and Potpourri Pledge does make me a little weak in the knees. Ahh…
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I decided against moving the large appliances even though I could see through the tiny slivers of space between them and the kitchen cabinets that there were spider webs, dust balls and food crumbs unaccounted for.
I thought I’d better deal with the parts of the house I could see first.
First things first – I kicked the kids out of the house to play in the yard, since cleaning with kids afoot is akin to shoveling your sidewalk in the middle of a blizzard. Yep, they had to go.
Then I rolled up my sleeves, and dug in. I swept. I dusted. I Windexed. I even shampooed my carpets, lit a few scented candles and put out all of my autumn decorations.
At the end of the day, when the house was shining clean and I was dead exhausted, I told Mike and the kids that they would now have to sleep in the barn…permanently!
People just had a way of messing up my clean house, and I would have none of that!
Well, that idea, and the clean kitchen counters, lasted until supper time.
Life is messy. Kids are clutter bugs. Dirt happens and dust gathers. Crumbs and old sippy cups even find there way under our furniture. And though I’d like to live in a perfectly clean house, I think I would get kind of lonely in my Martha Stewart style life.
I guess the crumbs of life will always lurk beneath the furniture, as long as we have kids around. I just hope that along with those crumbs of food, I remember to enjoy each morsel of love, joy and fun before I sweep it all up or dust it away.
And next week, maybe I’ll be brave enough to move the appliances…
Trish would love to hear from you at www.trishberg.com, or e-mail trishberg @ trishberg.com.
© Trish Berg, 2006-
Trish Berg is author to The Great American Supper Swap, and Rattled - Surviving Your Baby's First Year without Losing Your Cool! She has been a guest ABC World News Tonight, Midday Connection, and The Harvest Show.
She is an internationally known speaker for ministries such as MOPS, Hearts at Home, and in Australia on Parenting Seminars Online. She has written for Today's Christian Woman, MOMSense, CBN.com and P31 WOMAN.
For more information, check out www.TrishBerg.com
Read Trish's Simplifying Motherhood column at C'Moms