Lies

Chapter 11:

Growing up in a house with five children, I was accustomed to having to clean. We didn't have any maids in the house even though we could afford them because my mother felt that the best way for us to learn anything, was to do it ourselves. We cleaned our house ourselves, my siblings and I dividing up the house work. The girls had the inside. I got the main floor while Nia got the second floor. My mother did the third floor. The boys got the outside. Beckham had the pool. Hendrix had the lawn and the tennis courts. Apollo had the basement which was mostly always dirty and led to the outside. He also had the garden to attend to. My father was the man of the house so he was in charge of expenses, working and the basement along with Apollo. It was a system that always worked for our family and it was a system that helped set up the same thing in my home. Colton got the outside while I was in charge of the inside which was in much need of a proper cleaning.

So, there I stood with pledge in my hand and a washcloth in the other, going over wood in our vast, high-ceilinged, living room. The kids were downstairs in their playroom while Colton was outside cutting our grass. I could hear the loud sound of the mower as I would come closer to the house and then further away as he mowed.

I had gotten most of the cleaning done already and therefore all I had to do was pledge the wood in the downstairs and upstairs and vacuum all of the carpets which there were a lot of. But I wasn't a complainer. I had cleaned my own house since Colton bought the house after we got married all the way from my 8 year old year when my mother decided it was time for all the Ranglewood's to start helping with duties around the house.

I went over the fireplace and the end tables which had lamps and little fixtures on them to bring a more "homey" touch to the house. The lamps always were the things that became the most dusty so I made sure to go over them a couple times since Harper and Ryan were allergic.

I then went over the table that held the TV and the sound system. It was a large wooded piece and required me to go slowly over everything to make sure not a single speck of dust was present. In the end, there wasn't. I smiled.

I turned around, looking around the living room for anything that I could have missed. It was my mom's number one rule; You better double check if you missed something, otherwise if you did, then you were going to do it over again which costed you more time. That rule and phrase stayed inside my mind still to this day and proved to be a rule not to be broken.

I moved onto the kitchen. The table needed to be dusted along with the cabinets. I ran a rag over them; not missing a spot. I moved to the table and pledged the table, noticing it was still a bit dirty.

I grabbed a clean washcloth and wet it; stopping in front of the Bluetooth speaker we had in the kitchen. I unlocked my phone and turned on iTunes Radio to the pop station. I started to sing along with the music as my wetted rag flew across the table to clean the dirty table.

"I'm hurting baby," I sang, putting the wet washcloth inside of the sink on the island. It dropped with a thud in between the two sinks and dripped silently as I dusted the table, "I'm broken down. I need your lovin', loving I need it now."

I started to dance, bringing the boom box near the entrance of our house and rubbing pledge over the surface of the table that was there. It was a small table that held a bowl with keys to the house on it but fit nicely with the colors of the room.

I made my way upstairs; still singing to Sugar. I went through each room and dusted; getting every little spot and I was finished with the large upstairs that included three guest rooms, the kids rooms, a library and our master bedroom in no time.

I started vacuuming the main floor then went up the stairs to the top floor; finishing before Colton was done with the outside. I completed the basement yesterday while the kids were still asleep so that they didn't get in the way while I was cleaning. Because when you had kids, they seemed to go behind you and mess up everything after you had already cleaned. I shook my head and smiled. I signed up for this.