The Anti-Galante

Tomorrow is cleaning day in G-Ville.

Awesome, amazing, wonderful, breathe-new-life-into-our-home-and-my-mothering cleaning day.

I love cleaning day. It is the day I return home from the world and find my floors sparkling and shelves dusted... It is the day my shower gets a facelift and so does my cooktop. It is the day GG and I take a deep breath and sigh because life is in order for a split nanosecond; and enjoy it we will.

Our wonderful cleaning team are treasured guests in our home. They are a sweet Brazilian couple, the Galantes, who love my children and ooh and aah at my babies. They were so thrilled the day they came to clean and found me in labor--it was the feast of St. John the Baptist and a big Brazilian holiday. "There is no better day for a baby to be born!" they exclaimed.

I treasure them and their services. I recognize they are a gift and one we might not always be able to afford. But for now, they come and I love them!

Getting ready for the Galantes, though, is another story. It is a major undertaking to get our house in order and ready to be cleaned. The rhetorical, "Why do we have to clean when the cleaning lady is coming?" circles round and round my head as we prepare. As much as I love the effects of the cleaning team, I greatly dislike the preparation process. It is one of a few deadlines in my motherly world and it stresses me out!

So tomorrow is cleaning day and I'm getting ready. You see, the more I do tonight, the better off we'll be in the morning and my stress will be greatly diminished. That is, if I can cage the Anti-Galante--the great undoer of all things done.

Here she is, the fierce, frightening Anti-Galante:

Don't let her cuteness fool you. She wreaks havoc on bookshelves; runs rampant through laundry piles; creates messes where no mess has been left before!

She's the Anti-Galante and she must be quickly dealt with...

especially on cleaning day!