It was late in the evening. All the children had been put in bed....several times. Mother was laying in bed just trying to sleep. Father was snoring next to her. Unfair, she was always the first one asleep. Oh how she envied him, being able to snore. Was this what it felt like to be him? She tried every trick she had ever known to get herself to sleep. And there he sat, totally dead to the world.
Her husband had told her what it was like, not having your mind stop for anything. And no matter what she tried she couldn't get to sleep. She had always told her kids that they just didn't stay in bed long enough and that was why they couldn't sleep. She had laid in bed for three hours without feeling drowsy. Three hours was long enough. She heaves a sigh and decides to go check on their backyard chickens. They had lost two of them in the past few months. Maybe if she walks around a bit she will get tired....nope.
Chickens were secure, she went in the kitchen. Or as she liked to call it, the landfill. There was always crumbs on the floor. Do normal people have kitchens like this? Table was covered, floor was sticky, sink was full, dishwasher was....oh look, clean dishes. She decides that won't take too long and maybe she will be tired afterword. Dishes get put away, and before she can stop herself she has reloaded the dishwasher, done the extra dishes, showered the kitchen and squeegied it out the back door, organized her cabinets, and completely re arranged her appliances and table. It was now 3:00 in the morning.
Mother shrugs, the kitchen is sparkling, she still isn't tired. Such a strange feeling. She is usually the one who could fall asleep in the middle of the day if she wanted. Oh well, she decided to go to the front room. Business as usual, toys, clothes, crumbs, and wet pannies littered the floor. Before she could stop herself mom was at it again. Everything cleaned and vacuumed, then she pulls out the couch and vacuums under it. That wasn't too bad, she decides it was time to rearrange the front room as well. With the couch out of the way it wouldn't take too long to move the piano to the other side of the room. She just had to be careful, on account of one of the piano legs being missing.
It's now 5am. The front room is pristine. The piano had been on that wall since they moved in to the house 5 years ago. Moving it revealed the cleanest wall in the entire house. Simply beautiful. Now all the dirty walls were behind the furniture and she could just drink in the cleanliness of this beautiful plain, spotless wall. Her husband was going to want to mount a tv there now that there was nothing on it. Tragic really, to put holes in the one magnificent wall left in their home.
After reveling in the cleanliness she decides it isn't worth it to even try going to bed anymore. Everyone would be up soon, so she keeps going. Starting the laundry and picking up every bit of laundry off her bedroom floor. Her room didn't take long, she had to do it in the dark, but it was just a few clothes and some trash. She knew her bathroom still needed work. Just the standing shower. She had put off cleaning it for the longest time that it had begun to have soap streaks and mildew buildup. This will take more heavy duty equipment. Time to sacrifice her mechanical toothbrush.
She didn't even think twice. With a good cleaner and the motorized toothbrush she made short work of cleaning the tile in the shower. Still kneeling in the shower, still not tired, the bathroom door opens. Her husband sleepily pokes his head in, "Hello? How long have you been awake?"
Eyes wide open, and a giant goofy grin on her face, she replies that she hadn't slept yet. "The cleaning fairy finally visited...SEE. She even organized our kitchen cabinets and rearranged our furniture." her husband shakes his head in disbelief. Being the good wife she is, she makes him go look at all the work she has done. "This is the part where you ooh and awe at my handy work." She queues him. "Say things like, wow wife, this looks awesome. Or, oh yes, this is beautiful. I love the not sticky floors." He laughs, "no really husband, tell me I'm awesome."
He hugs her, "You did wonderfull sweetheart. And now I'm going to stay home from work. You are not going to be able to stay awake today." Well that wasn't the plan. She did all of this because she couldn't sleep. With her assurances, she manages to convince him that she can handle the day and gets him off to work. All while she turns on netflix for the kids and sinks deeper and deeper into the couch. "Goodnight wifey."
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