Worth the Hype: Vacuum cleaner belts

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Worth the Hype: Vacuum cleaner belts

So, I feel like a total housekeeping dunce. For months I have been faithfully vacuuming 3 times a week and feeling more and more discouraged each time. I finally reached the height of frustration when my brother spilled fish food on the floor and I couldn't get the vacuum to suck it up. The hair from my postpartum balding was EVERYWHERE and I'd taken to crawling around the living room, putting my head parallel to the floor when the sun was shining in the window and picking up as many hairs as as I could see that way. I even asked a bunch of friends about their vacuum opinions - certain that I had to go and buy a new one like, yesterday. Lily has started to really crawl in the last 2 weeks and I was getting desperate. A friend graciously let me borrow her vacuum (probably so that she could put her baby on my floor when she came to visit without fear for his health) and finally it dawned on me that I had owned the vacuum for 3.5 years and I had never replaced the filter, the roller brush or the belt. Lo and Behold...the belt was broken.
I have had lots of examples of broken belts in my day - I think that my mother bought them wholesale and had bins full of them when we were little because she ALWAYS seemed to be changing them. So it is not from unfamiliarity with the problem that I suffered. I guess I just thought that MY belt would never break (don't ask me how a person can be arrogant in so many areas of their life - it must be my own special gift) and therefore blocked that solution from my mind.
So last night we switched the belt and this morning I vacuumed - for the first time in probably 3 months - it looks so great!!! Who knew?! It doesn't matter how often you vacuum if your vacuum is broken - it won't help! I was so happy that I just sat down on my couch and put my feet up and gazed with love at my clean floor. And I won't even go into the details of the hair that ended up in the filter - wow. I don't know how many more kids I'll be able to have - a few more and I'll end up looking like my husband ;).

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Loves and Loveletts

Lex - somewhere in her mid-30's. Homeschooling mom as well as a homeschool graduate. Lives in a little Burg in the Appalachian mountains but will always have a little Michigan inside her. Mother of 6 that were born within 9 years of each other. Lover of audiobooks, praying through singing, birding, asparagus patches, and photographing kids. Grateful for the gift of community - the beauty, the ugly and the mediocre. Follower of Christ.

John - Late 30's Theology Professor, aka The Love Doctor. Always burning the candle at both ends he works hard during the day to form the future of Catholic priests and in the early mornings and evenings he carts children to and from activities and makes his wife mean G&Ts. Evangelization, providing music for Mass and adoration, sharing insights from St. Thomas Aquinas are what he's most known for in his professional life. Doing the dishes every night, dropping everything to meet us in the ER, and fixing the constant rotation of things the kids break are what he's most popular for here at home.

Anthony - Thirteen. Geography and grammar are where he shines academically - both requiring a precision that Anthony has a hard time not overusing. He enjoys playing soccer as often as possible and he stands out on his team as being a guy with his head and his body in the game - attentive and thinking. He works hard on living with equanimity as an introvert in a crowded, loud, busy home.

Rosie - Ten. Leader of "The Tribe": the three loveletts that were born within 2.5 years. She is a hard worker in school and rarely requires my help, just plugs along and gets her stuff done. She takes a lot of art classes and keeps a nature journal and I love what she is able to observe and translate through a pencil. She loves to make up all sorts of games and fun pretends for the younger member of the family. Everyone should be so lucky as to have a Rosie.

Thomas - Nine and all E. Energetic, enthusiastic, eager, excitable, extroverted, exhilarated and engaged. The only trouble we have with Thomas is that it's hard to keep him busy enough - he has an appetite for life that can be overwhelming! He's been this way ever since he mastered crawling. He was off and the rest is history. Anthony wrote this limerick about Thomas this year.

My brother is energetic

His body is super frenetic

He yells and he jumps

and he gives us all bumps

But Thomas is never pathetic.

This is all true.

Cecilia - Eight. Cece is such a great "smack-dabber". Smack-dab in the middle of the family and always wanting to be part of the team. She is generous, inclusive and positive. We often call her excited, positive, can-do presence, "The Power of Positive-Ce". She has none of her older sister's innate sense of fashion and often rollicks around in outfits that make me question her ability to see colors. And patterns. And cleanliness.

Catherine - 5 going on 30. Probably the most thoughtful and caring person in the house. She is totally normal when it comes to wanting to run with the big kids and "do it myself" and other such developmental standards. What sets her apart in our family is that she is so tuned into how other people are feeling and how her actions effect them. When she throws a fit (which she still does occasionally) she is the only child to offer unprompted apologies and amends. She is our sunshine.

Gloria - 3 and THE BABY. She is well ensconced in her role - having no desire or inclination to reliquish her tyrannical hold on all the people older then her. We do her bidding and she entertains us by singing herself little songs, letting us tickle her and having big beautiful eyes and super long eyelashes.

Love Life - Our Grand Tour

Thursday, December 13, 2007