Unintended hiatus

Well, as you may have realized, I have been absent from the blogging world again for the last two (and a couple of days) weeks.  But I have a really good excuse - at least I think I do. :) I started a new job on St. Patrick's Day. I'm cleaning houses for a living now. It's intense. It's fast-paced, thorough and after the first two days, I was fairly sure I was going to die.

Floors are all done by hand on your hands and knees. No brooms and mops here. As a result, my knees have been incredibly sore and my wrists have been acting up quite a bit. Tendonitis and working on hands and knees don't exactly go together real well.

But just the same, I have been plugging away at it. And I'm doing really well at work. At home, ehm, not so much. That's the one major drawback. I work so hard during the daytime and then by the time I get home, I am often so worn out and exhausted that I don't want to do a thing around here. Plus, since I spend all day cleaning homes, I'm kind of used to a certain level of cleanliness now that the house is just not living up to. It will eventually though. I just need to be able (and willing!) to thoroughly clean one room each day after work. If I do that, then it will be much improved. I just have not had the desire to do more work each day.

Also, I am planning on sharing a few tips with you all that I have picked up from work. I can't share all of it though, because well, there are policies and everything...but some stuff I already knew and do at home anyhow (when I'm not dead tired from work!). So look forward to that in a future post.

I am also excited because this next weekend, I am going to finally get a chance to visit a new(-ish) blog friend, Erin and finally get a chance to try out some Shaklee products as well! The company I work for uses green products, but I'm wanting to try out Shaklee because I think that their products are going to be even better than the ones that we use at work.

Also, during my blog absence, I was given my first blog award from faithful reader Patty.

As a recipient of this award, I am supposed to list 7 things about myself that someone may not know from reading this blog. Yikes! Which part of my life do I want to scare you all with share with you all? Well, here goes...

1. I am thinking about possibly opening a home daycare again. I need to look into the requirements and get all those things worked out, but I'm seeing it as a definite possibility.

2. I am really a private person. I bet you all would never realize that, given the frequency of the posts and the amount of stuff I talk about and share, but it's true. I'm actually really timid until someone gets to know me.

3. I am seriously addicted to sweet tea. Instant tea with artificial sweetener to be exact. LOVE the stuff! And I will easily go through a full jar of it each week if I allow myself to. Which I try not to, because I don't really need that much caffeine and artificial sweetener isn't really that good for you either.

4. I am starting to love cleaning again. In spite of my current job as a housecleaner, which I figured would make me hate cleaning even more, I am actually starting to get a little high from cleaning people's houses (and no, it's not the chemical fumes! It's the joy of a freshly cleaned house!)

5. I'm starting to play online games again. I have a bit of an addictive personality, so I try to avoid things that I think will get out of control in relation to my own personal time management and online gaming is one of them. However, recently, Hubby has gotten me onto World of Warcraft, which I do enjoy playing but haven't played much since one weekend shortly after Punky was born when I power-leveled from 1-42 in a weekend. The only thing I did that weekend was play the game, take bathroom breaks and short sleeping breaks. Everything else was done at the keyboard. I nursed Punky while playing, I changed her diapers there, I ate my meals there. It was horrible and something that I have never wished to return to, so therefore my gameplay has been in severe moderation because I know how badly it can take over. Oh - and I'm handling it much better this time around. About an hour's worth of game play two or three times a week is more than good enough for me.

6. Wow, this is harder to do than I thought. Um, I watch way too much TV - particularly on Mondays and Thursdays. We have DVR so I don't have to watch TV on that particular night, but my DVR series list includes the following shows: Sister Wives, 19 Kids and Counting, 90210, Make It Or Break It, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Hoarding: Buried Alive, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Downsized, Parenthood, Modern Family, Hoarders, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. That's like 13 hours of TV each week! Now, granted, I only record/watch new episodes and they have different running seasons, and sometimes there are conflicts on my DVR so I have to choose to not have one of them record, and that is never a hard call. I have definite preferences among the shows on my list. As for my viewing choices, well, I kind of like a hodgepodge of shows. I like teen dramas, I like shows with a medical basis, as long as it also has a storyline that includes interpersonal relationships, I like crime shows as well, as I like to guess whodunit along the way, I like some inspirational shows as well, And nothing makes me ready for a huge purge at home like an episode of Hoarders. :) And then I like special genres, family life, I suppose, like Sister Wives, Downsized, and 19 Kids and Counting.

7. Hmmm, one last thing. I love to rearrange furniture. Or rather, I love to have my husband rearrange our furniture. I think I come by this honestly though. My grandmother, who I spent most of my childhood with, rearranged her furniture every 3-6 months. And my parents moved about every 3-6 months when I was growing up, so I was used to constant changes in furniture arrangements.

Yep, there you go. Seven facts about me that you may not know from reading my blog.

Now, I get to choose 15 blogs to receive this award as well, so here goes:


1. With A Little Help From My Friends
2. Delightful Order
3. Grandma Becky L
4. Kingdom Twindom + 1
5. MckMama
6. Feeding Four
7. Good Enough Mommy
8. Life With Katie
9. Marni's Organized Mess
10. Organized Everyday
11. Ramblings of a Stressed Out Mom
12. Seams Inspired
13. sweet view from the hills
14. White House, Black Shutters
15. The Boys & Me

Okay ladies, there you go! It's now your turn! Grab the image, post it on your blog and then list seven things about yourself that someone reading your blog may not know and then choose 15 of your favorite blogs to receive the award as well!