The eternal housework dilemma

What a gloriously sunny day it was today. We lay in bed for as long as the children would allow (they came and bounced all over us, full of idle, happy chatter at about 7.30am and we all got up for breakfast an hour later). Ben was awake a lot of the night so he was in with us for most of it. He's gone from full time co-sleeping to spending probably 80% of the night in his own bed, though he still nurses to sleep.
I think he's feeling a little under the weather. I took him, finally, for his MMR on Thursday afternoon. A large part of me wishes I hadn't bothered. I'd cancelled it four times previously and finally decided to do it. I had many misgivings but it's too late now. He's been utterly miserable all day. Clingy, short tempered and crying constantly though he enjoyed some one on one Mummy time with a trip to the shops after lunch. I hope he perks up soon, poor little sausage.

Anyway I took a cleaning notion today. It's true. It doesn't happen often but it did today. I decided to tackle the kitchen. The full day I worked on it. Not exclusively of course. There were trips to the shop, time spent playing in the garden, time spent cooking meals and hanging out washing with my little helpers. But I always came back to the cleaning. All the little, time consuming things that never get done. Wiping down all the white appliances - fridge, washer, drier - that were covered in felt pen (and still are to a degree) and bits of splattered food. Cleaning the tiles, reorganising shelves and the cutlery draw, cleaning the window frames while shouting constant 'Hello's' to the sproglets playing in the garden. They were all wearing wellington boots for some reason. It was their 'thing' today.

So by 8.30pm tonight the kitchen was spotless. By my standards at least. There is still some unnecessary clutter but I'm pleased with how it looks. I felt a sad sense of accomplishment. But of course, it's only one room. The rest are still a mess, some considerably more so than others! By the time I get the chance to move on to the next room, chances are all my hard work sprucing up the kitchen will have been undone. And thus it continues.

I'm not hugely houseproud but I don't like to live in utter chaos. It demotivates me. I feel noticeably more stressed out and I am more likely to snap unreasonably if the house is a complete tip. But I only really do house work once a week, on a Sunday evening. It almost seems pointless as I go back to work the next day and the little wrecking machines are back on task (play hard, make lots of mess!).

And yet I can't NOT do it. Sometimes I even enjoy it; I did today. It was relaxing and pleasant. No lost tempers, children coming and going. The occasional fight to break up up and some tears but generally it was a lovely family day even though we did nothing special. Sometimes those days are the best ones.

Still, cleaning your house when you have three small children must rate amongst one of the more thankless tasks!