Slam Dunk Theory of Chaos: Why I am thankful for forks

I grew up in a house full of messies. I have two brothers and a sister and she was the only exception in our family of six. She is a clean freak sometimes, but at least she doesn't take out her obsession on the rest of us. When we go visit, she stays out of the guest rooms and spends her visiting time wiping down the countertops or vacuuming. 

On my own, I'm relatively neat, easily keeping up with the housework of one. That's why I know I am capable of living in a clean house. Keeping up with the cleanliness of the house with two is more difficult, but a task I could manage. I don't like cleaning up after other people, but I can do it as long as the other person reciprocates. After Coral was born, my ability to keep up with the chores began to decline. Thus my theory of chaos began to evolve:

One child is capable of a single child's amount of chaos. I'll denote that with X, so 1= X. Two children together are capable of X and their combined X as well, 2= 3X + 3X = 6X. Three children together are capable of their own X, the combined X of a pair of children twice and the combined X of all three of them twice, 3= 12X + 12X + 12X = 36X. Four children is the level of chaos I grew up in: 4 = 156X. 

Here's a pictograph of it:

Or, if you like,

That's after two days of being sick. 

I'll get the floor swept and mopped and all back to clean, but it never ends with kids. Two days of sick and I'm looking at two days of clean up! 

In an effort to keep my sanity, I've decided that my house does not need to be super clean like my sister's, just clean enough that my husband can get around in his wheelchair. My shelving is cluttered, but I know where everything is, my drawers aren't full of neatly folded clothes, but they're in there, and my sink often has dirty dishes in it, but I try to keep that under control too. My problem with dishes is that my dishwasher has to take sick days (like the last two) and can't wash dishes while I'm teaching or showering or sleeping or basically anything I do that isn't dishes. The other thing about that is I despise washing the dishes. It's another never ending job that has to be done at least three times a day if I am to keep up. In an effort to fix my attitude about dishes, I've begun to meditate on thankfulness while washing. For every lousy fork and skinny glass I need a special tool to clean, I thank God. I make it a point to say in my head, "I'm thankful for this fork. I've gotten many good years of use out of it and without it and others like it, I'd be eating with my hands."

It's a useful tool for me because it fosters thankfulness in myself and helps me to teach my children to be thankful too. Basically, my chaos leads to my thankfulness and hopefully a lifetime of thankfulness in my children too.