Cleaning house while kids are growing is like shoveling snow while it's snowing

Mary (9/20/12) I remember my mother trying to have a clean and shinning living room floor.  She would mop and wax it and then get dismayed when her children would run inside and then outside all day long tracking dirt in on her clean floor. I remember when she had what she thought was a good idea.  She wanted the floor to remain clean for at least a while after some of her moppings and waxings so she moved the couches back to give us one section of the floor to use so the major part of the floor would remain clean and shinning.  But I remember this didn't last long, she gave up and the couches were moved back and we had full access to the floor.  One thing kind of special is that she let us shine the floor up by sliding all over it with our stocking feet.