What I see and what I think about it.

Monday 7 April 2008

Spring clean and Potty training

The last week has been filled to the brim with 2 very time consuming activities. One was spring cleaning and the other potty training Tilly.

I spent each morning cleaning one (or two) rooms in the house. I don't think that this house has ever been so clean. I pulled things out and hoovered in corners, got rid of cobwebs, moved furniture (a girl after my own heart!), wiped woodwork and tidied, tidied and tidied. During this I became a bit dishearten. We rent this house and I must confess that I find it hard. We have to ask permission for everything and I want to just put up a picture, paint a wall, put up shelves. I could possibly do all these things but I would have to get permission in writing and in most cases put it back before we moved out. Some things aren't worth it when you don't know how long you will live somewhere. SO I started the week cleaning someone else's house, and not getting paid for it. And I was moany about it. Very moany. I was having a chat with friend and moaning to her when she pointed out that it may be the landlords house but it is my "home". I was not cleaning his house but my home. And she was spot on. I had been thinking about it all wrong. He may have a rights over the bricks and mortar but he can't do anything about our home. Our home is where our family are. Me, Nick, Martha and Tilly. The building may change but that heart will stay the same. That is what I am building when I say I am a homemaker, not a house wife. I am the one who is making the home. Part of that is cleaning and cooking and ironing and endless washing. But mostly it is about being there. Atmosphere. A feeling. A security. And no building can create that and no landlord can not give permission for it... it is something that is grown over time.
So I have a very clean house now and I am proud. But I also have a clean home. And I am pleased to be able to do that for the family that I love.

Onto potty training. I said to a friend that I wanted to train Tilly before Tummy tot arrives in August. But also really wanted to wait until she begged me to go into pants.... well she did! "Mummy (don't) ont nappy. PANTS!" So instead of training her it was more a case of letting her get on with what she wanted to do! So we tried her in pants around the house and she did really well. So we did a little trip the library and that went really well. That turned into a trip to the park and on it went...And so she has been nappy-less (apart from sleep times) since last Wednesday. I think we just got the timing so right because it has been very painless. Martha was trained at 2 1/2 years also very painlessly. I can't thank Martha enough for her help. Tilly loves copying her big sister and so Martha has been a great source of inspiration. I know that there will be accidents. But I feel very confident. The really great thing to know is that she will have been out of nappies for months when the baby arrives and so the chance of regression is quite small.
Our one problem is that Tilly is tiny and so her pants are HUGE. It must be very strange for her going from big washable nappies to very lose airy pants!

It was really great how the two things worked well together. Because we were at home cleaning it wasn't a problem training Tilly. And there was always a cloth handy, just in case. I know that some will say it is coincidence but I would prefer to give God credit for his very good timing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hurrah! Hopefully it will all be done by the time we get home. We seem very far away but what a treat to be able to read the blog all the way in Flagstaff where there is snow lying on the ground. We left 29 Palms this morning in wonderful sunshine and a temperature of about 30 degrees C. We travelled through desert to high mountains and all the time Tilly was being her usual clever self with much input from big sister.
Lots of love M & E xxxxx

Anonymous said...

Yeah for you! It's so nice when you can enjoy and be proud of your home - some friends on campus yesterday cooked supper for a bunch of people, but said they wanted to eat at our place as it was more homely - hoorah! I was so proud - it may be small, but it's Ken and my first home and so I love it! xxx