A Spoon Full of Sugar

Day 271 – Before I moved here I use to have a nice lady who cleaned my house for more than 14 years. I used to bring my cloths to the cleaner instead of washing and ironing shirts, to go to restaurants very often, go on fancy vacations every few months, not having to think about where the money will come from. I knew things will be different once I leave my home because  I will not be making as much money as my ex-husband did, and so I will have to live on a much smaller budget. I have few friends who decided not to pursue a divorce exactly for that reason. But for me it was not even a question, I prefered to live on very little money and less extravagant life style but leave my home than to live in a gilded cage. And so I did. The tradeoff is that I have to do a lot of the things I used to pay for other to do, that vacations are not as often and not as fancy, that I don’t go out as often and that I am very careful with my expenses. All this long introduction is only to say that this weekend I had too much fun going to the beach and hiking that I neglected to do one of my chores – cleaning my house. And so today I had to make time for it and I spent the last 3 hours cleaning. I am trying to make it a fun activity – the music is blasting and so I can sing aloud while cleaning and just looking at it as a workout – no need to go to the gym on a day like that, but seriously, it’s no big deal. Of course it’s nice to come to a clean house where someone else did the work, but I can think of some worse things that could happened. And if this is what I have to pay in order to be a free woman, I think it’s worth it. And the cool thing is that at the end of the three hours I have a very clean house and I like that feeling very much.

  

I am thankful for a very clean house I have right now. I am thankful for the opportunity to develop again some balance. I am thankful for the lessons I get every day, about being humble, modest and good. I am thankful I am learning time and again not to take things for granted. I am thankful for the opportunity to grow. And with a spoon full of sugar, cleaning a house is really no big deal.