Normal? Maybe?

Maybe having a pity party worked....

So, yesterday after breakfast I was playing with Anna and suddenly I felt like cleaning my leather couch and chair. Wow, that was strange. I haven't felt like cleaning in, umm, a couple months? After the couch was done, I dusted one of my plants. And then I felt like doing laundry, particularly my woolens that are so hard to clean (I cheated. I'll give instructions at the end.) I can't tell you how suprised I was. After a couple months of wanting to do nothing but read and lay on the couch, it was a welcome relief. I even was able to decide on something for dinner(with my sister's help), make it, and have it ready when Hubby walked through the door!

With all of the cleaning urges happening, I can't help but wonder if the end of morning/evening/all day sickness is in sight. I'll be at twelve weeks this Friday, so maybe things are starting to calm down a bit. Expecting it to go away almost immediately is unwise, but maybe I really am starting to feel better.

Instructions on cleaning woolens:
My in-laws are obsessed with all things wool (my sister-in-law married into a sheep herding family and my mother-in-law cleans, cards, spins, dyes, and knits her own yarn). This would explain the wonderful wool blanket (Pendelton, because that is the only place to get good wool blankets) we received from them for our wedding. And the last time we were visiting Grandma and Opa, my mother-in-law showed me how to clean our blanket without having to take it to the dry cleaners. It is actually very simple.

Here are a few rules to remember when washing wool:
Never, NEVER agitate (unless you intend to felt your woolen)
Always use the same temperature of water for every stage of cleaning (hot or cold, it doesn't matter, just don't switch from hot to cold or vis versa in the middle of cleaning)
Never run water directly onto your woolen

Here is what I did with our sweaters:
First I added Woolite to the washer and filled it up with water.
Then I added the sweaters and gently pushed them under the water until all the air was gone.
Then I let it sit for about 30 minutes to an hour.
Then I moved the dial ahead to the spin cycle, let the water spin out and then refill, stopping it as soon as it started to agitate. (my washer fills from the bottom up, no water shooting into the bowl. If you have one that shoots water, you will want to move your woolens out of the way, or remove them from the washer until the water stops shooting.)
I repeated this process again just to make sure all the soap was out, then I moved the dial to the final spin cycle and let it finish.

Now, if you have one of those fancy front-loading washers that I covet, just use your handwash setting and forget about these complicated instructions.