Just Do It

In cleaning out papers yesterday, part of moving into the desk, I found my personality profile. I am an ESFJ.

Guardians of birthdays, holidays and celebrations, ESFJs are generous entertainers. They enjoy and joyfully observe traditions and are liberal in giving, especially where custom prescribes.

All else being equal, ESFJs enjoy being in charge. They see problems clearly and delegate easily, work hard and play with zest. ... ESFJs are easily wounded. And when wounded, their emotions will not be contained. They by nature "wear their hearts on their sleeves, " often exuding warmth and bonhomie, but not infrequently boiling over with the vexation of their souls.

I truly hate to think that I can be so easily classified, but that is SPOT ON. Those words describe me to a T. Love me or leave me.

I am a delegator to the nth degree. But I am also a perfectionist, and THAT is an interesting combination. Take the kitchen cabinets, for example. (stay with me...)

We have old cabinets. I live with 5 slobs people, and so these old cabinets get gooey. I'm afraid to wash them down too much cuz they are...old. I delegate much of the cleaning, and my girls get paid beaucoup bucks to finish my list of chores each week. It works out well both ways - they actually ask for the lists to earn money. They clean quite well, except that everyone seems afraid of the cabinets. Neither girl gets that far on the list. And the goo-iness makes me nutty. The job looks too big. We have a LOT of wood in this house and somehow if I do one area the perfectionist in me thinks I need to continue to completion.

Thus the title. Just do it. Every once in a while I become a white tornado. There is nothing pleasant about it. I just attack, and if you are in my way you will get bleached, cleaned, scrubbed and polished. Best just steer clear. The five I live with know the warning signs. Take cover.

Well, I've been in a cleaning funk. A bit blue. Introspective. I needed a nudge. There is a mess in every direction - one of those kind of moods. So I took yesterday OFF...puttering in my new desk, doing homework, snoozing, reading, watching a movie...that sort of day. It was lingering well into the evening when...

Jake started throwing up. In trying to get to the kitchen sink he managed to throw up ON and IN the cabinets. ewwwwwww. My husband is a really good first responder, so he did the major clean up because truly, I would have been barfing in all the other directions. I had a bad case of the blue funk yesterday, and I don't think I even came to the kitchen. I comforted Jake, and my husband did the mess control. (Which was fine by him, by the way. He knows I am not lazy, and that my part would come...)

Today, after church, the thought of the germs, and what my husband calls clean compared to what I call clean (voila Mrs. Perfectionist) ...well...watch out. The tornado arrived.

The entire kitchen is bleached. I wiped down every cabinet. And then I put on a mega coat of Liquid Gold cleaner and preservative. The wood is gleaming. In fact, I don't think food *could* stick to my cabinets at the moment...it would slide right off. I bleached the knife block as that was hit DEAD ON in my son's eruption. I crawled under the sink and organized and cleaned all surfaces. For some odd reason I cleaned out the pantry, even though that is no where near the target zone. Like I said...tornado.

Do you know how long it took me? About 1.5 hours. I have fretted about those cabinets for 10 hours. I have begged and bribed my girls to do them for at least 2 hours. I have been bothered by them for days at a time. 1.5 hours.

Just do it. That's today's challenge. Find something that is bugging you, and, just DO it.

Oh...I also put out the valentine placemats on the sparkly clean glass table. Why? Cuz I'm the guardian of holidays and traditions...see above.