Thursday Status Report -- and Croutons

It's been a week since Cathy was here. I have not taken the house to any new levels of organization (I have not sorted through one single box) but I have maintained it for an entire week. This is unprecedented. (I remember 18 months ago I kept the house neat and tidy for a month, but it's been slowly going downhill ever since...until Cathy rescued me.)

I even had awful back pain on Monday and Tuesday, but I persevered and I even mopped downstairs yesterday, and upstairs today. I scrubbed the kitchen counters with Soft Scrub, and cleaned all the bathrooms. And....I.....kinda....enjoyed it! This is bizarre! I haven't enjoyed housekeeping for a year or two; it's just been so discouraging and a constant reminder of my failings. Cathy's catching us up helped so much. Now that I've experienced the cleanliness for a week, I really want to keep it that way.

And now for something completely different:
This week I learned that I cannot have croutons in the house. My husband bought some fabulous herb bread that needed to be used up quickly (it was on the clearance cart), so we made croutons. The croutons sat in a ziploc bag and called to me. "We'd be lovely on your salad. We'd be lovely in a bowl with cashews while you read Jeeves and Wooster. Why don't you snack on just one....or five....while you make dinner?" I had to shut them up, and there was only one way to do so....