It didn't turn out like I thought it would . . . .

. . . it turned out better!

The day before our cleaning lady was supposed to come in June, I ran into her at swimming lessons and she told me a fishy story about not being able to clean our house because her car wasn't working and she was using her father's. She said she was thinking about taking the summer off of housecleaning and I said that was okay because I had already told her I might take the summer off too because it was too hard to keep my girls out of her way or to keep them out of the house for the 4 hours she took to clean.

Fast forward to the first day of school. I saw her as she dropped her ds off for Kindergarten and said hello. I asked if she was going to clean for me again because my house was missing her. She was sort of non-commital so I didn't push it.

A couple of weeks later I wrote her an email asking if she was going to come back because if not I needed to find another cleaning lady. She wrote back a long story about her father's having macular degeneration, he was going to have an operation, she'd be busy taking care of him, and she didn't see herself returning to cleaning houses any time soon. I wrote back that I'd find another cleaning lady and good luck in the future.

One week later . . . I saw a big, fresh-looking sign in the neighborhood advertising cleaning services. I pulled out my cell phone to check the number and, you guessed it, it was her number! I saw several other signs as I drove here and there in the neighborhood.

So, what is the deal?
1. She doesn't like to clean for us for whatever reason.
2. She wanted more money but was afraid to ask.
3. She's a big liar.

Well, #3 for sure, but who knows about the other reasons.

A week later we were talking to some friends from Church and one of them said he and his elderly wife had a great cleaning lady who had been with them for a couple of years. Now, this man is functionally blind and his wife has very limited range of motion, so we wondered if they really knew if the cleaning was good or not, but we had him pass our contact information on.

The gal came out and gave us a price for her and her daughter to clean our house together. It was about 50% higher than we'd been paying, but we decided to try her out anyway and see if she was worth the extra 50%.

Way. As in "way worth the extra 50%." She pulled out the sofas to vacuum, she cleaned the baseboards, she wiped the vent covers. She was meticulous. She and her daughter spent a total of about 9 hours cleaning and didn't stop to run out for a coffee or pick up a child from school the way our first one did.

So, I think we have found ourselves a new cleaning lady. Our house appreciates it.