Before and After!

And you thought I forgot about this newly established theme. Pfffft. Nope, haven't forgotten at all! Life, like everyone else's, just seemed to have picked up speed, which means blogging kind of takes a backseat. But life is good!! It is full. It is adventurous. It is fun.

Blogging for me is a night time activity, done in peace and quiet where I can put my thoughts down. However, my nights have been quite full with meetings etc. My days are definitely quieter than my nights, but I do not like to blog when my littles are up. It requires too much thought and concentration for me and so to be interrupted just would not go over well. Hence, the nighttime blogging.

But here I am! I have a night free AND I feel like blogging. I have some catching up to do (i.e. Thanksgiving camping etc.) but I start tonight with a BEFORE and AFTER.

I took these pictures back in September, but I thought I'd better share them before it gets too cold out there, 'cause who knows, maybe they will inspire you to get this task done while it is still do-able, weatherwise.

This task, like many "cleaning" tasks, had been in the back of my mind for pretty much, well, all summer. There just always seemed to be an excuse to *not* do it. And for the most part, it never really bothered me that it wasn't being done. Until I had to share this space with someone else. Then it was embarrassing and I would 'promise' myself that I will do it before the next weekend. I did that for 12 weeks. And then finally buckled down and got it done.

So what am I talking about?

The Car.

That's right - taking out the vacuum cleaner, dust cloth and a pail of hot soapy water to finally, finally clean that car of ours. And it wasn't that bad of a task to do - especially when you have such a willing helper!

Thankfully, we do not do a lot of eating in the car, so there really weren't a lot of crumbs to deal with. And I didn't have to use my fingernail to peel off any old pieces of candy, smarties or once-soggy fishy crackers from the carpet. We also didn't find any stale bread crusts or chewy french fries under the seats from 6 months ago. But don't worry. We found lots of dust!!

Yup. To clean the car was definitely way overdue! And so, away we went, scrubbing, dusting, and vacuuming everything (and despite what the pictures may show, I did do my part as well ;)

Within the hour, we were left with a sparkling and pleasant-smelling car!

I can see how fast I am going now.....I can no longer use the dust as an excuse: "No, sorry, officer, I did not know I was speeding. Let me just blow the dust off my speedometer for a minute....."

And now I know which way to turn the dial to get some heat!

So, why did it take me all summer to do this?! Who knows, but it sure was nice to no longer be embarrassed in the church parking lot, knowing that so many were passing my car and could see in, thanks to the lack of tint on my windows.

It felt good to get it done, even if it only lasted 3 days. The sand vacuumed up from the summer has since been replaced by leaves.

But I challenge you to get this task done, if you haven't already, before it is just too cold to haul out the vacuum cleaner and a pail of hot steamy water that will only stay hot and steamy for 2.5 minutes. Go. Get it DONE!!! And while it may not stay clean, enjoy checking this off your to-do list before the snow flies. :o)