Vanquishing the Beast

I AM VICTORIOUS! My home is in order for possibly the first time in months. The floors are swept AND vacuumed, all surfaces are dust-free, my counter tops are gleaming and the toys are all neatly tucked away on shelves. Although, even as I type this I scan the room and see wilted florescent balloons left over from a party last week that most certainly do not belong in my living room. Sigh. Does anyone else feel like they are waging a war against some evil force within their abode that maliciously and consistently spews out clutter, dirt and dust? Sometimes my efforts seem comical, like trying to keep a boat afloat that has sprung numerous leaks, but I am happy to say that through sheer determination and pressing circumstances, my house is now CLEAN.
A plus of trying desperately to sell our house and move is that we often get calls from Realtors requesting a walk-through with prospective buyers. We usually know a day in advance but there's nothing like a last minute call to get us motivated and focused on getting our house in Better Homes and Gardens condition. After all, if we can make these people love our house, we can move and be together as a family again and I no longer have to function as a single parent of small children.
So we got a call asking if some people could come by in about an hour and a half. Luckily both girls were still resting so Tim and I started tidying the house, it wasn't that bad. But the more tidying we did the more we saw how much cleaning needed to be done. So we kicked it into overdrive and dusted, scrubbed, wiped, and cleared kitchen, family room, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Whew! I knew we were getting a little stressed when I got after Tim for scrubbing a sink I had previously cleaned and he shut down my attempts to vacuum. We pulled out of the driveway, both babies in tow, exactly 1 minute before the prospective home-buyers were to arrive. After congratulating ourselves on a job adequately done, I resolved to do some deeper cleaning when we returned so we could be more prepared for the next time. Although I am currently enjoying my clean home, I anxiously look forward to settling into our next home and enjoying our privacy and cleaning at a more leisurely pace.