Cleaning & Throwing Out, Room One

I cleaned the bathroom today.

When I say that the first thing I hear is a Greek chorus singing, "The, as in only, bathroom?" Yes, we have only one bathroom. More are planned but we figured we only needed one to move in. And we moved in four years ago. On this main floor another half-bath is planned. For now that is a catchall area called the bathroom-not. And a full bath downstairs which is totally unfinished. But only one bath now and for the foreseeable future.

Since there are six of us, and only one bathroom, there's a lot in it. I didn't really mean to get into cleaning it today. I had started, over a week ago, on the closet and still haven't gotten another part of a day to work there. People have given us clothes that must be gone through and those boxes just sit in the bedroom with us navigating around them. I have to do the closet to do the boxes. It is like trying to line up hundreds of dominoes so they can eventually tumble in an amazing pattern. But husband was bottling his beer which meant I couldn't do the usual kitchen things. One thing led to another and I accidentally ended up cleaning, really cleaning as in touching every single thing in there, the bathroom.

And throwing away. From the bathroom it isn't a ton of stuff and still it is hard. The kids all have those little battery powered toothbrushes, from Toa's to princesses to Spiderman. Their second set of them sits out on the sink but we still had the first set in the toothbrush box. Why? And when I went to get the batteries out of them and husband finds out I'm throwing them away, he hesitates. He bites his lip. But he agrees, finally. If something happens and they need another toothbrush, they can use a quiet one. It is ok. We can let go. There is no security in mere possessions.

So there it is, one room. YEAH! And while nothing except beer bottling has happened in the kitchen, husband says he'll be back to help with that in a minute. And he's fixing steak and baked potato for supper.

And tomorrow, when I have the kitchen scrubbed again, I will fix the last of the calves liver with onions, which I dearly lovelovelove. Chocolate meat eldest used to call it. We're trying to eat the beef and not be saving with it because it won't be long until the hogs need killed. I remember carrying that liver up to the house after we'd killed the calf and how heavy it was. And how pretty. I love that calf.

And now it is time for me to get the children started on evening chores: feeding and watering the chickens and rabbits, and gathering eggs.