I Love Donna

Donna has been in our life for the past seven years...and I love her. She shows up every Monday morning like clockwork while OC, YC and I are getting ready for school. DH has already left for work and The Dude is either getting ready to leave for work or in the bed. She is as much a part of our family as the dogs or the cats. The girls love Donna almost as much as I do. Yes, Donna shows up every Monday morning, and when Donna leaves, I have a clean house.

I was a SAHM while YC and OC were at home; I quit my job when YC was six months old. And I stayed home with the girls until YC started pre-K. Then I signed my first contract and have been teaching ever since. But one of the negotiating points of my going back to work was getting someone to clean our house. I don't want to be gone all week and then spend all weekend cleaning the house. And Dear, Sweet Donna has been worth every penny we have paid for her.

No matter how many times we refigure or recalculate the budget, Donna is always right under the mortgage payment. I will miss groceries but I won't miss Donna. Call me spoiled, call it my way of stimulating the economy.

Case in point, we are on Spring Break this week. We went camping in the Castle that is our new camper. The dogs and The Dude stayed home. The dogs are going through a "mourning stage" with Midnight - they are doing crazy things they rarely ever do. This week, they decided to open the pantry with their nose and take out (1) peanut butter, (2) Crisco, and (3) Bisquick. Thankfully, the only one of the three they got opened was the Bisquick. They ate the whole box under the kitchen table. I have never ever been so thankful for tile floors. But I also had to do something I haven't done in forever...I had to mop my own floor. I have the biggest kitchen in the history of the world; gourmet cooks would kill for a kitchen this big. I just call it a lot of wasted space. But it is only Thursday and Donna won't be back until Monday and I couldn't leave Bisquick under my kitchen table for four more days. So I spent the morning cleaning up Bisquick and appreciating Donna.

And when I finished mopping my floor, I realized we don't pay Donna nearly enough money for what she does!