Blessed routine!

I never thought I'd say that but I've gotten into such a good routine since working from home that the holidays really threw me out of whack! I've discovered that I find comfort in the fact that I have the house to myself by 8am each morning, giving me about half an hour to do a very fast pick up and tidy up, quick swish and swipe of the bathroom etc. Then I have to start work but because I end up with little 5 and 10 minute gaps in my workflow during the morning I get to schedule in other things like throwing on a load of washing, unpacking the dishwasher, vacuuming a room or doing the wall patrol with the Spray-N-Wipe and a microfibre cloth. I have never been a tidy person but this seems to work so well for me and the house is cleaner now, after only one day of Doug being back at work and the kids being at kindy and holiday care, than it has been with all of us at home. Sure it will only last until five minutes after everyone has walked in the door - but at least I know it was clean during the day! The messier my house is, the more scattered my brain feels so it's in my best interest to at least do the visual clean. You know that one where you just clean off big surfaces and get the floor vacuumed so there isn't crap sitting on every horizontal surface! I get that whole sense of calm thing when the house is clean but it just never lasts long enough. I heard a quote which says "trying to keep a clean house while you have small children is like trying to shovel snow while it's still snowing".

I had a great idea for a layout yesterday so I'm just waiting for my work to be over for the day (I usually finish between midday and 1pm) so that I can put it together. I've also got about four comissioning letters that I desperately need to send back but I haven't been near a post office and I've run out of stamps of course! Cass came over to pick up my last two layouts to scan for me (so slack, haven't had a chance to get to her place so I can upload them and show you the freaky style change) and I sat and snapped a few dozen shots of her two little ones while she was here. Some great shots of her little girl and I might scrap one of those later too as she's a real stunner. A great subject makes for instant inspiration in my book!