Clean is a good thing!

My HC loves to clean!! She loves to make her bed (although she has NO problem tossing her dirty clothes on or around the laundry basket - never IN). She loves to help JB clean his room. I think she has the gift of Helps. When we get ready to have worship in JB's room, she cleans while JB and I dance around and sing the first song. Then after the first song she joins in with the dancing and singing. If she notices JB has left a mess in his room, she offers to "help" him clean. The result is JB playing in the corner with a toy while HC makes quick work of his room. Which is followed by "WOW! Tanks stister! You did a GOOD job! I'm so proud of you!" This is a good habit and a great help, unless we are in a rush and HC has to leave BEFORE making her bed. That leads to a melt down every time.

She finally began relaxing her obsession with having her bed made and I was glad to see her not so freaked out when we were unable to get it done. I wanted her to relax but not to lose the love of taking care of her things. I do LOVE that she makes her bed, I just don't want her to become obsessed about it!

Well, the other day she wore her crocs out in the mud and we brought them in to clean. I put them in her sink and was going to get back to them, but I was distracted. When I did return I found HC at work. She cleaned her shoes, laid them in the tub to dry and then she got to work on cleaning the sink. She used the hand soap and she did a GREAT job. I knew she would love this chore and wanted to let her have a go of it, but I didn't want her around the bathroom chemicals. This was a great fit! For about a week we would hear the water running in the bathroom and if you were a fly on the wall, you would have heard "HC, turn off that water and STOP CLEANING YOUR BATHROOM!!!!!!!"

I suppose you could say JB enjoys cleaning the sink too but somehow I don't think that is what he is doing. When the water is running and JB is on the scene you will see a LOT of bubbles and water splashes EVERYWHERE! Nothing has been cleaned but water is high and low!! :)

Here are pictures from HC's spring cleaning:

DING (Can you hear the sparkly sound effects?)
Lately, when it is bedtime, HC sees the mess in JB's room and she rushes in there and says "Brother, we NEED to clean your room. If you don't clean your room, you will have bugs in your room! Do you want BUGS in your room??? Bugs LOVE messes!" I feel bad, a tiny bit, for taking advantage of what we were watching. We were watching something on TV the other day and there were bugs everywhere. HC asked "Mom, why do they have bugs in their house?" I said, "See how messy there house is? Bugs LOVE messes!" I feel a twinge of guilt knowing I fed into two of her fears. HC HATES bugs and messes! Poor JB doesn't have a chance! If he doesn't choose to have a clean room - HC will see to it that he doesn't bring bugs into our home! :) (Bad mommy! hee hee)

When JB is forced to clean here is what you will find! Of course this doesn't count as clean. He's just taken the things off of the floor and put them on either:
a. His bed.
B. His toy box.
C. His sofa.HC's room has a place for everything! Finally she knows where everything goes so she is now willing to play IN her room WITH her toys. For the longest it was like her room was a museum and now she is happier since she knows how to organize her things. They are so different from one another!!