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From my facebook updates:

For the first time in (mumble mumble) weeks, my house is almost clean. I'm sure the Chesapeake isn't thanking [me] for all the spraying and scrubbing, but neither are several trillion microscopic beasties.

 Vacuuming in the blackness of space beneath furnishings, I'm very carefully curbing my curiosity about the blub-cha-clank going on in my long suffering vacuum. Was that a toy? A hair clip? No, don't think about it! FWOOMP!! Oh, crud, that had to have been a sock or a tissue... NO! Don't think about it. Crackling hiss! Sand. It had to have been. Or cracker crumbs. Rattling clink might have been money... No. No. Don't think about it.

 I did end up taking those two finals yesterday.   The psych final was my one and only chance (as far as I know), but the sociology test is a three striker, with the prof taking the highest score out of all three.  He'll email on Monday to let me know if I need to take another whack at it, but with 38 points of extra credit to apply to a 100 point test, I'm feeling pretty darn good.  

 Last but certainly not least, my English final is this Thursday.  It's going to be four questions regarding the plays A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen and Fences by August Wilson.  If you have the chance, A Doll's House is a completely haunting movie as well (1973 version), starring a startlingly young Anthony Hopkins and including the lady who plays Miss Prism in The Importance of Being Earnest.   

 It's felt really good to feel like I have the time and energy to give the house a good scrubbing.  I've gone through a lot of cleaning supplies today and I may actually go through more than one whole vacuum bag.  Of course the kids havn't been as enthusiastic as I, but everyone seems to breathe much more easily when you can stride through a room without kicking anything, or easily find towels and clothes and cups and forks.  We're starting to get the rearrangement itch as we learn that the three youngest kids seem to have too much room.  We're moving the spare room into the former master bedroom on one side, which is where Bren is living.  We're going to get him a smaller bed and a smaller room and a room with fewer closets to worry about.  So that's going to begin in earnest this week, and then we'll have missionaries over for dinner to do the heavy lifting since Man isn't up to that sort of thing anymore.   

 Also, the kids are getting older and wanting more money.  So now I have to start calculating how much money I'm going to offer for extra chores.  Hehe.  The chores have worked very well in the past but they've been more sporadic.  One time I charged Bren a lot of money to let him make a dinner on a night he didn't like what I made, but I let him do chores to earn it all back.  We havn't repeated that since then, since the little stinker really needs to eat the food I make and I don't want him thinking he can just throw money at something he doesn't like to fix it.  So I'm wondering what it is they can do for money that isn't something they should be doing for themselves or the family anyway.  Claire should be doing her own laundry here pretty soon, I'm thinking at the beginning of the next school year.  Basic yard care, dishes, caring for their own and public space, cleaning bathrooms, vacuuming, and cooking once in a while are all part of being in a family.  So what's left?