Today's rant and rave...well, everyday's rant and rave, but I'm doing it publically today.

A couple weeks ago, my visiting teaching companion used the expression "catch the dust before it falls." Every time I think about it, I find myself SO irritated (not with her, with the expression.) I try to be an organized person and, of course, I prefer my house to be clean all the time. But I feel like I'm trying to clean up the "dust" of a volcano eruption while it's still spewing ash! How do you catch the new stuff when it falls faster than you can keep up with it? It's not that I mind doing the work (once)....it's that I mind doing it, then doing it again 20 minutes later, and again 20 minutes later, and so on. I spend about 20-30 minutes a day vacuuming, depending on whether or not I vacuum the upstairs. Add to that 30 more minutes to mop just the main floor and that's nearly an hour! (Not daily, just when I have the time.) Do you know how much damage my ADD daughter can do in just 20 minutes without constant supervision? I am feeling particularly frustrated today because I am running around at 100 mph, trying to get my house in order before we leave for St. George in the next couple of days. By the time I finished vacuuming, the living room was a complete disaster. So I cleaned it again. I mopped and she went upstairs and pulled every article of clothing she could reach out of her closest, off their hangers, filled up a duffel bag and emptied it downstairs to "try on." Between her and a needy 1 year old who follows me around holding onto my legs, it is next to impossible to get anything done. I know I'm not the first to have kids while trying to keep a clean house. The part that really gets to me, is that people are able to accomplish it. I seriously spend almost my whole day picking up after my kids/doing chores. No wonder I feel like I'm no fun anymore. I don't have energy to do anything else after a day where I am going non-stop! What am I doing wrong? Is my daughter really that much more out of control than other kids? Is it that wives have husbands who are willing to actually help and/or pick up after themselves? What's the trick?