The teacher learns a lesson in teaching

Having gone about two months since giving the house a good clean, I decided to for go the gym and let house work be the workout. Since I am "night nausea" , I must get anything that needs to be done for the day accomplished before noon. As I lay in bed before getting up and going over my game plan, the words of my good friend Jennifer Clifton ring in my head as she was telling me of Noah's vacuuming the house. So mentally, I divided up the days chores among two of the three kids and left myself the mopping lest the whole bucket of water be dripped out on the floor. The kids have tried mopping before and they are just not strong enough to wring out the mop. So at breakfast, I excitedly shared the plan to a very enthusiastic bunch of willing and strong bodied workers. After cleaning up breakfast and getting dressed, we were ready by 9:30. (I'll share a side story to the getting ready part at the end.) The kids picked up their rooms while I washed the sinks. We did learn Jillian can take toys out of a box as fast as two people can put them in. Then I got Jackson his paper towels, glass cleaner, toilet bowl brush, and a container of Clorox wipes. After he has started on the bathrooms, I set Bethanee up with the vacuum. Due to the power of the Dyson, I could not let her use the hose part of the vacuum, only the upright on the carpets. I would hate to see one of the girls heads sucked up to the end of the hose. While she is vacuuming I go downstairs and work on picking up. She vacuums in about 8 minutes and comes downstairs announcing she has finished - her room, Jackson's room, Jillian's and mine. HHMMM! I go up to complete the bathroom floors with the hose and find debris still on the carpets. That's when I realize I've never actually taught Bethanee how to vacuum. I just figured it to be common sense. I'm sure my mom could attest to the fact that one must be taught the proper way for the job to be done right. So I went back over the upstairs and then brought the vacuum down. This time, I stood beside Bethanee holding the cord, while she learned to properly vacuum. Her finally comment was "This is hard." She did a great job, though and I am more than eager to hand off the task. Jackson, who has already learned the way a cleaned toilet should look, did an excellent job at his task as well. He was doing well on the mirrors, until he slipped in the sink and hit his back. Yes, it has happened before and he new the risk associated with getting to use the bottle of Windex. Final note, house is clean - whole thing in one day. Cute side story....Jackson told me he'd pick out his clothes and mine. I said that was fine, not thinking to much about it. I told him to pick me out something comfortable to work in. When I went upstairs to get ready for the day, there was a fleece sweater and a skirt laying out on my closet floor. At first I was baffled, then I realized he had laid my clothes out for me. I didn't wear that outfit and he didn't seem to notice, but it was so typical of my sweet, thoughtful, Jackson.