If Cleanliness Is Next To Godliness...

...then that explains where I'm going, and why I'm in this handbasket.

This isn't going to come as a tremendous shock to anyone, but keeping a house clean when eight people live there is damn near impossible. (Who am I kidding? It was no small feat when there were only five of us.) Even with a chore rotation -- and most of us sticking to most of it -- we're just really hard on this place. Granted, the kitchen would stay a lot cleaner if I stopped all this crazy cooking business, but that would inevitably create a whole host of other problems...

But I read yet another study today that left me feeling justified -- okay, maybe just somewhat less guilty -- about the way we keep house. Its findings, like those of other studies, point to a connection between hyper-sterilized houses and children having increased allergies and underdeveloped immune systems. (Am I the only one who remembers telling each other as children, "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt"?) If the mounting evidence is to be believed, my kid should be impervious to everything but kryptonite.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not serving the kids raw chicken popsicles or anything -- it's one thing not to fear danger and another thing to throw yourself in harm's way -- but it's got me ready to put up one of those adorably tacky cross-stitch pieces that reads: "my house is clean enough to be healthy... and messy enough to be happy."

It's probably a better idea than the one I really feel like buying...

Comments

[kristen]

i have the subversive cross stitch wall calendar. but then, does that really surprise anyone?

[Walt]

Ah memories.

My brother and I would play a fierce game of 21 in the driveway, then come in for a mid-afternoon snack of raw chicken popsicles.

Raw Chicken Popsicles...Now available in the frozen treats section of your local supermarket!