Charm Citizen

Orange Theory Fitness Community – I met one of my besties at Orange Theory Fitness for a morning workout. We hadn’t seen each other in a few months so we were overdue for a catch-up. We’ve been meeting at Orange Theory for the past year when our schedules sync up and it’s a great way to get in a workout and spend healthy time time together. We even went out afterwards for smoothies at Teavolve (I had an amazing mango matcha tea, btw). This outing is a big departure from our wild party days and late nights in years past. Anyway, I thought this was an interesting post because part of Orange Theory’s brand is to promote community building. I think our practice of hanging out while getting a workout adds to their community. We also chatted with the instructor and fellow gym goers as well as stayed at the end for a group photo.

Kids and Cleaning- How old were you when you started helping your parents clean the house? I can remember helping my parents at a pretty early age, specifically helping to polish furniture when we were having guests over. I also remember vacuuming pretty regularly as early as 10 or 11 years old and cleaning toilets. Things like doing dishes regularly or loading and unloading the dishwasher did not come as early and wasn’t part of daily life until my early 20’s. I drafted my kids to help me clean up a little before we have guests over tomorrow and they we’re pretty vocal about not wanting to do it. My oldest was the most resistant to different requests and ended up doing a less than spectacular job dusting different services throughout the house. My younger two daughters, ages 7 and 9, teamed up to help clean the toilet bowls and clean the mirrors using glass cleaner spray. Overall, I thought they did a good job and helped to relieve some stress I was feeling about cleaning g the bathrooms. I’ll need to go back and make sure the sinks are clean before tomorrow I will also further task them to make their beds tomorrow and to organize their stuffed animals. I had a cleaning lady for a few years when I had infants since I wanted to prioritize my free time and free hands to taking care of my babies when they were super small but that help sputtered out with the pandemic. I also hate to spend money on cleaning when I can find time to do it myself. I also have to mention my extraordinary mom who helps me one day a week with laundry and dishes. I would be in big trouble without her help. Another tool that has really helped with our efforts to keep the house clean was my husband’s purchase of a Roomba a few month’s ago. It had seriously been a life changer to set “Harrison”, as my daughter’s call it loose in a room to vacuum up all the cat hair. It’s like our dream robot. I wish they would invent one they vacuums stairs.

I only made it to two things instead of five today.