Mommy Musings: To clean or not to clean?

I am starting a new feature on this blog. A few months ago I attended a book signing by The Pioneer Woman. During her Q&A period someone asked her how she got started with her blog. She said that one of her first posts was pictures of food in her pantry and the expiration dates. She is famous for writing about random happenings around her house and about her family. So I have decided to try and do something similar. Every once in a while (I have yet to decide if this will be daily, weekly, or just whenever I feel inspired) I am going to talk about family, church, housewife duties, etc. Today's musing, as you can probably tell from the title, is about cleaning. I'm not the most effective cleaner nor the most consistent, but I do like to have a clean house on a regular basis. However, today I had a thought: Why do I bother cleaning certain areas of my house? As anyone with small children can attest, the minute you clean a room, especially if it's frequented by family members, it stays clean for very little time. If you clean it right before you go to bed it stays clean a bit longer, but you aren't able to enjoy its cleanliness because you're sleeping. So I was trying to figure out why I take so much time and energy to clean my house. And the answer is that I get a sense of accomplishment and a good feeling from doing so. Even if a room or the house is clean for half an hour or less, for that small amount of time I can look around and say "I did this. This makes me happy." And I even realized a while back that cleaning can be a form of exercise. For example, when I clean my bathroom I'm constantly bending forward to clean the tub or reaching up to clean the mirrors. And by the time I'm done I've worked up a sweat. So I've come to the conclusion that cleaning is very beneficial, even if the results are only temporary. And since, if you were to come to my house now you wouldn't believe it, here is proof that my house was clean earlier today.