I'm not a slob???

Happy 4th of July from Twin Elm Gardens! Did we spend the holiday relaxing and enjoying our day? No - not exactly. We plan on doing that later this week - we are heading up to Crandon for a much-needed day on the lake. But today we had a big day of work on our hands! My parents and I are helping us put in a gorgeous brick patio under our pergola, and even though it was upwards of 100 degrees today, we were outside working on it from 7 am until 6 pm! It was quite the exhausting day! Laying brick is not an easy task - I can't imagine my dad's part of the job because he had all the rough work. I just had to haul bricks or pound stakes - he had to do the hardest parts. We were all pretty sweaty, and I hadn't showered from yesterday's workout at the farmer's market. Needless to say it was obvious I was the most smelly because the flies would only land on me, not my parents. Except when Luke came around - then they migrated to him. We had a good laugh about that.

So this week has afforded me a little more down time that most weeks. Summer school has not yet started, so beyond CSA and market, I had a little time to pluck away at my to-do list. Yesterday morning Luke gave me the morning entirely to myself. It was his "thank you" because last night I did the farmer's market by myself, from start to finish. Anyway, the morning to myself was very refreshing. I took the time to do an extreme cleaning session on our kitchen. I washed all the dishes, scrubbed the counters, cleaned out the fridge, and even scrubbed the floors by hand. If you wanted to stop over right now, I would gladly show you my kitchen. The rest of my house doesn't look nearly as nice.

Anyway, the entire time I was cleaning, I thought about our lifestyle a little bit. Our house isn't all that cleanly -  I have blogged about that before. I have always justified it - we are too busy to clean and whatnot. By the end of the day, I'm too tired for dishes and laundry. I would tell myself I'm not a slob, and we just are too busy to keep a super clean house. And it is true, we are busy. But that is just an excuse. A little time management and organization and we would be all set. The thing is Luke and I don't take the time for those tasks - we always find something else to work on.

The truth is Luke and I still have boxes from when we first moved in...over two years ago! My mom would tell me that if we haven't unpacked them yet, then they are probably just junk, but I will most likely find something of sentimental value in there. Since school has not yet started, now truly is the time for us to get organized! We have made a lot of progress in the past two days, and hopefully we continue to do so. Don't get me wrong - it is not a disaster or anything - you can see all the floors and have plenty of spots to sit - but it isn't as orderly as I or Luke would like. So we are going to change that - otherwise I just might have to stop adamantly telling myself that I'm not a slob. On that note, I'm going to fold a little laundry while we watch our movie.