Keeping my fingers, eyes & legs crossed
At this point, I'm holding my breath until I turn blue. I want this deal to work out so bad, it's unbelievable. For about a month, I've been trying to work on a barter - training for house cleaning. The house work is overwhelming, although since a meltdown about it, Bill has been really good about helping me out more. But, we still need more help. He's at work & the last thing he needs to do is clean the house when he comes home. Add a messy two year old on top of that & you have a recipe for a constantly messy, stressful, frustrating situation.

It's been so stressful because it's been the last priority on my to-do list. With training clients, all of the activities that we do & pregnancy exhaustion at the end of the day, cleaning is not something I strive to do on a daily basis. It's something I know I need to do & I just get this nagging feeling about it all the time. It weighs heavily on me & it shouldn't. I know I need help. I need help so much that if we could I would just outright hire someone to come in, but what do you know, our insurance company is eating up every last cent for pregnancy, labor & delivery costs. It's not in the budget & with the rising cost of gas, groceries & daily living, I don't see it fitting in anytime soon.

This is why bartering is so great. I can train someone in exchange for cleaning my house, all the while keeping our savings & our budget in tact. Nobody has been really serious about it until now. I've sent out a ton of emails & even had something worked out with the owner of a cleaning company to only be no-showed (twice!). Today a potential house cleaner actually showed up, on time, with a lot of questions to an interview we scheduled. It seems very likely this will work.

We hit it off well, she seems like a nice person who takes commitments seriously (both cleaning & fitness). She's taking her time to make the decision, which I really appreciate. So, I'm waiting to hear if she's game. I'll know in a couple of days. Until then I'm holding my breath until I turn blue & keeping my fingers, eyes & legs crossed.