Still nesting?

I've got a serious case of tunnel vision when it comes to housework. Or... maybe I should say I have very selective cleaning obsessions. My biggest obsessions in housekeeping are probably

-sweeping the floors
-keeping the bathrooms tidied
-general toy/shoe pick up
-dishes
-making our bed (and Vasi's when I remember)
-wiping the countertops
-laundry... or at least, getting it into the hamper, and then into the washing machine, and then the dryer. After that, it's anyone's guess. Usually it gets into a basket, and quite frankly it could stay that way for a loooong time.

These are all a part of my daily routine, and I have gotten fairly good at accepting the reality that these things must be done on a daily basis. Err.. make that twenty times a day, give or take.

So what about everything else? Well, it's all a work in progress. I could go for weeks, months, years, without noticing the smudges of guacamole on the kitchen cabinets. Or the pile of boxes stashed unattractively in the corner of the living room. The dying flowers on the hutch. It's the smudges, the huge piles of paper and stacks of junk that don't seem to faze me.... until I get the occasional epiphany that--Wow! This looks awful!--and then I go back to sweeping the floors or putting away the Dora figurines.

Right now, we've been living in our house for about five weeks. Job worked really hard to get the boxes unpacked and the house in order to a point where, as a nesting, pregnant maniac, I could personally feel at ease and calm. We got to a point where we were not living out of boxes.

We're still at that "functional" point. True, I just had a baby and I should probably cut myself some slack. I can't expect my home to be in tip-top shape. But I'm slowly realizing that this "functional" point could remain this way for a LOOOOONG time. You know? Pictures/art aren't hung on the walls yet. The boxes full of dusty books have not been unpacked. Only half of our windows have curtains. And on and on. And I wouldn't be concerned if I wasn't well aware of my tendency to turn a blind eye to the eyesores.

So my new goal is to whittle away at all of these things and get my house truly in order by June 21st. That's when I'm hosting my friend's bridal shower.

For posterity's sake, here's the list of things I have TO DO:

-buy a new vacuum (luckily only half or our house is carpeted... but I've had to do a lot of sweeping on the carpet)
-buy another set of curtains at Ikea for the living room
-Find a home/homes for my art... seriously, folks. Maybe I'll do an "art purge" and make an etsy shop of my stuff at inexpensive prices.
-Hang curtains
-Organize the "mutant room" (3rd bedroom/"office") that is clearly the junkiest room in the house-- it contains many unpacked boxes)
-Hang pictures/art
-Organize our bedroom.... which is a close 2nd in the "junkiest room" category).
-Hopefully get a nice load of stuff to take to Goodwill.

Yesterday Job and I were talking about life goals. I used to have some kind of lofty career-oriented goals. Get my Masters of Fine Arts and teach art at a college level (pah!) or go back to school and get a Nursing degree. But these days I really, really just want to be good at what I AM doing now. There are so many areas in my life and in my home that need improvement. To be a true Proverbs 31 woman seems a mammoth career task in and of itself... without the monetary compensation, of course :)

Maybe I'm just still nesting? Maybe there's some residual nesting instinct that remains post-birth?

Oh well, at least tomorrow is Sunday. I look forward to resting (it is a day of rest, right?) and soaking in the day with my little Susannah. I love this 40 day business :)