A lightbulb moment

I have been dabbling in photography lately, taking family portraits of some close friends and family.  I am absolutely loving it, most especially without the pressure of it being a "job."  Further to my previous writings about trading instead of using money, this system is working out really well.

At any rate, Sunday afternoon I was off for 2 1/2 hours taking photos for my sister and my sister-in-law.  James was at home with all four kids.  He does this once a week when I go to band practice, but that's at night and the kids are usually only moments from going to sleep when I leave.  This was an afternoon, with all four of them going at full tilt.

When I walked back in the door, I was greeted by the following promise from James:

"I am going to help you around the house more.  It is impossible to get anything done when the kids are around."

YES!  I guess it was one of those lightbulb moments for him, when he realized that staying home all day doesn't mean I can spend all my time cleaning and organizing and doing dishes and laundry.  For some reason, I'm still not able to get things going smoothly yet.  I'm always lagging behind.  Laundry is the number one culprit, but the kitchen floor hasn't been scrubbed in a long time, and while the toilet and sink get a good cleaning at least once a week (out of necessity, with three young boys), while standing in the shower this morning I couldn't remember the last time it was done.  I figure it gets soaped up a couple times a week during bathtime, and a good rinse every morning with our showers, so that must count, right?  Right?

James is usually pretty good already at helping out, especially if he's home alone.  Almost every time the kids and I are away for a few days (that happens once or twice a year) he inevitably has steam cleaned the carpets or emptied out the fridge and washed it down, or some other major chore that never,  ever, ever makes it to the top of my to do list.  This was a nice moment, though, because I've really been feeling the difficulty of taking care of the house with four young children.

Luckily, the living room and kitchen are tidied most days, and the boys are now in charge of their bedroom, which should help.  The nursery is a disaster while I'm painting and redecorating, and our poor paster bedroom quickly becomes a dumping ground.  But I've got lots of storage solutions and I'm slowing tackling things one at a time.