because I now have a cleaning service at my house.
The last time a had regular cleaning help was during my pregnancy with Mary. I broke my foot and had surgery to pin the bone fragments together. Because my pregnant body found crutches just a wee bit unwieldy (I’m pretty clutzy even on my best days) I bought volleyball knee pads and literally crawled around the house. My cleaning lady was the sweetest lady. She didn’t complain about the 5 boy chaos and had plenty of sympathy for my pathetic situation. Loved her. Am still so grateful for her.
But one morning I was crawling past the bathroom and saw her cleaning the INSIDE of the toilet with the kitchen rags. I watched in mute horror as she took the sopping wet rags and tossed them on the kitchen counter.
“Um, um,” I timidly spoke up, “we have a toilet brush you can use.”
“Oh no,” she replied, “those brushes don’t get the bowl clean enough.”
So, I swore to never eat off my kitchen counter again and told her shortly thereafter that we were short on money and Erik and the boys REALLY WANTED to do the cleaning.
Yeah, right.
In my ongoing quest to secure the love of my future-daughters-in-law I’ve trained all the boys (well, not Gabe) to clean. We have a lovely little rotation chart that everyone supposedly follows. And the result? Well, don’t look too closely at my bathrooms, OK?
But I’ve now hired the most fabulissimo cleaning service that gets my house shiny clean every two weeks. Someone I can boss around and ask, “Is that microwave really clean?” “Don’t those shelves look a bit dusty?”
Yep, good old Benny-boy. He needed a flexible job, I needed sparkling toilets. It’s a great deal.
What I didn’t anticipate was my oldest son turning into a slave-driver. The night before cleaning day he patrols the house barking, “Put away your laundry, pick up those toys. Get your room ready for vacuuming and dusting.” YES SIR! Right away sir.
And he catches me just as I’m sitting down to read YOUR blog or eat a spoonful of peanut butter. “You want your bathroom clean, Mom? Go pick up your junk!”
See that look? He’s saying, “Stop taking photos and go clean your room!”
Sigh. But he does do excellent work (note he’s moved the furniture and rolled up the rug to sweep and mop the floor) and it’s extremely gratifying for me to hear him say, “Why is this kitchen such a mess?! I just cleaned it two hours ago!”
Welcome to my world, buddy. Welcome to my world.
************************
Claudia
Dang, wish my clening person looked like that. Handsome devil.
And yes, you are spoiled. You must be doing somthing right.
Blue
so the question is, what’s his hourly rate and does he do windows? 🙂
What a great guy that Ben is!
♥
Ken
Ben is AWESOME!
GeorgiaBecksteads
He needs to talk to me about some Norwex products!
katherine
I want one of those!!!
It's ME! -- Christie --
what a cute blog…I enjoyed this post…I enjoyed reading through your blog…I found you on mormommommys, I should have my link there soon, too!
Bonnie
Awesome!!! I wish we had one of those too…
duchess
I love him!
Wish I could pay for him to travel to SC, maybe I’ll just show my son this post & see if he gets the hint. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by earlier.
stace
this is why I had kids…haha.
Blue
uh oh. my daughter is wanting one of those. this is ENTIRELY too soon! and you’d think a girl would start out with something frivolous, like wanting a pool boy. but it just goes to prove that a man in an apron is a powerful and dangerous thing. so is a man with a broom, vacuum, or wearing rubber gloves. and it also goes to show that perhaps my daughter isn’t as frivolous as her mother was as a young lady. but we knew that already.
my main question is one you may have to just answer IRL. how on earth do you manage to get such massive photos on your posts? Blogger always makes mine so small. you’ll need to divulge next time we talk.
♥
Christie
I can tell you have a fabulous house. Please give us a photo tour.
And someday your daughter in law with sing your praises.
twoelves
That is one of the funniest posts yet. I love it. Way to go Ben! Sure is a cutie too.
jennie w.
What a doll! And helpful too. The girls are going to go crazy for him (if they aren’t already).
Glazier5
Lucky you! Where have I gone wrong? My boys aren’t pulling their weight…I guess I’ll give the 5 year old some slack, but the almost 10 year old needs to learn a few cool vacuum moves like Ben!
StubbyDog
Better be careful, or he’ll figure out just how attractive a man who cleans is to the opposite gender. 😉
Jan Russell
How old is he again? Wondering how many years until I can get Harrison to do the same…ha!