cleaning and not burning house

I spent the majority of my time last week cleaning our house. A little here. A little there. Trying to rid it of any germs hanging around for another chance at making life miserable.

I kept the laundry going: load after load after load. I am so grateful for our energy efficient washer and dryer...

Liam thought all of the cleaning was great, especially washing all of his and River's toys.

He even got over his fear of the vacuum cleaner and nearly caught it on fire. I didn't realize that some ashes near the woodstove still had live coals mingled in with them, and then next thing I knew, the vacuum was smoking and flames were shooting out the hose attachment! Aah!

I quickly turned off the vacuum and unplugged it, cutting off the incoming rush of oxygen that was feeding the flames, and hurriedly removed the smoldering bag and tossed it onto our snow-covered driveway.

Liam was wide-eyed through the whole ordeal.

With a new bag in it, the vacuum works great. And I learned a valuable lesson: never vacuum ashes (or allow the 2-year old to do it) unless I know for certain that they are as dead as a doornail.

We are enjoying a much cleaner house. I'm not sure how long I can keep it up with my two little mess-makers, but as long as we don't incinerate any important appliances, I'll call it good.