Just like college.

I am exhausted for several reasons, the primary one being that my husband and I procrastinated so much in cleaning our house before my mom visits today that we were rushing around with bags and rags last night after our son went to bed, frantically de-cluttering and scrubbing. It's irritating and just like college and grad school when I did the same thing, only earlier sans kid.

There are many things that make this annoying, not the least of which is knowing that I've reminded both of us about this several times, indicated that I hate doing this at the last minute because I wind up not sleeping (something I need to deal with my mom, who's a little high maintenance), have cleaned several times over the previous week by myself to reduce clutter and still have to help clean those areas my husband had agreed to clean the week before. Ugh. I was complaining about this to a friend of mine and she gave me some very good advice that helps me not get so mad as I used to (now it's just a buzzing, low-level annoyance):

1. He's an adult - if he can't get to it despite having ample warning, it's his problem not yours (this helps sort of, but not when it's 11 p.m. the night before we have guests and there's so much crap all over the place he can't possibly get it done by himself).

2. We have a fairly big house (larger than our condo) and a toddler, so the likelihood of it ever being spotless is nil (this is actually very helpful).

3. If there is a huge mess we need to clean up, if we need to, we can put all the clutter in a bag and worry about it later.

4. You can't change other people, only the way you react to them.

This is all true, sometimes painfully so. And I've taken a lot of it to heart and don't get as mad as I used to. Key phrase: as mad. I still get annoyed, but I don't experience the same level of rage I used to. Still, such annoyance - and the cleaning that causes it - can be draining, especially when you're already not sleeping thanks to a little boy who likes to wake up before dawn sometimes and won't have anyone but mommy.

Eh, whatever. It could be much, much worse.