Eternal optimism of the spotless life

I told y'all that the Modern Mom would get my life back in order this weekend, and did she ever. I am typing this post from my spotless living room. The bookshelves have been dusted, the coffee table scrubbed and the carpets ... wait for it ... completely steam cleaned. My cream-colored carpet had turned an unpleasant shade of spotty brown thanks to mud tracks, basted dog treats and the aftermath of Lucydog's romp through my chocolate stash a few months ago -- which included both ground bits of chocolate and dog vomit ground into the carpet.

On Friday we scrubbed everything from top to bottom: countertops, shelves, tables, carpet, bathrooms. Everything. I washed and hung my laundry. Today, we rented one of those Rug Doctor contraptions from the grocery and steamed the carpets. I've been planning on doing this for more than a month now, but knowing my love of cleaning comes from my mother, I figured she wouldn't mind helping. I seriously cannot begin to express how big of a difference the carpet cleaning made.

I swear we didn't spend the whole weekend cleaning. A friend of mine who is wrapping up her studies at beauty school gave us half-priced facials. I think there's only one thing in the world better than a facial, and that's a half-priced facial. We went to the nearby factory outlet stores, where my mother the enabler egged me on to spend waaaaaay too much money on several lovely new outfits and pairs of shoes. We went to a basketball game. I worked while she spent some time at the local bookstore. We went to church. We ate out. We ate in. And it was all very, very good.

I don't know if its the spotlessly clean house or all the honest talks or just the time spent with one of the people whom I love most, but I feel restored and renewed in a way that no day at the spa could have achieved. I've had a couple of moments of panic, but they've been totally work-related (does this mean I'm back to normal?)

I feel ready to get back to the life I was living before Jan. 3 ... except I'm ready to make it better. I'm ready to simplify my life as I resolved to do on New Year's. I'm ready to have new adventures. Meet new people. Learn new things. Maybe even find love ... again.

I sincerely hope I can harness this feeling and energy and put it to work. I'm sure the setbacks aren't over, but I want to be able to work through them quickly so that I can focus on living my new life to the absolute fullest.