The roller coaster

I was thinking last night about this house. The cleanliness of this house, specifically. Any of you who do not have at least three children probably can't imagine the sheer volume of filth in my house. The numbers of drinks spilled, crumbs dropped, and toys kicked under furniture add up to a continual, uncleanable mess.

There are times I feel like I have it relatively under control. The boys do their chores, I come along and finish up, and things look pretty good. And then there are times that almost all of the work is left for me to do, and I can't keep up. Then I get sick, like this past week, and absolutely nothing gets done, and then when I'm well, the sheer volume of disgustingness makes me want to crawl into a hole and never come out. I feel like I am constantly either at the pinnacle of making things just the way I want them (this usually happens right before company comes), or down in the dirty depths of grossness from which there would seem to be no escape.

It's not that I don't have the time to clean. But when I spend all day teaching, then cook dinner, I really really don't feel like spending two hours cleaning on top of that. And when I do, it gets messed up immediately, so where's my motivation? Why bother to clean at all? Can you tell I'm at a low point right now?

My oldest son always does his chores. The younger ones don't. I've tried taking away every privilege they have and they Just Don't Care. I've tried taking their chore money so that the oldest gets to buy neat toys when they have no money to buy anything, and they just don't care. Oh sure, they whine at the toy store, but that doesn't motivate them to work at home. I don't get it. Does anyone have any ideas to motivate two kids who won't work? Because I'm going to lose my mind here.