The Elves and the Shoemaker

The only progress made so far on my spring cleaning project is that I now have more clean laundry than dirty. Not put away laundry, or even folded laundry, but clean laundry at least.

Sigh. . .

I remember this story I loved as a child, The Elves and the Shoemaker, a Grimm's Fairy Tale. In the story, the poor shoemaker is barely making a living, scraping by, and finds himself with enough leather for only one more pair of shoes. Before bed, he carefully cuts and lays out his leather, preparing to make the shoes the next day. When he returns the next morning, instead of cut outs for a pair of shoes, there is a completed pair of shoes! He sells the shoes the next day to a gentleman who pays double the normal price because of the fine quality. Then, before bed he leaves out cut outs for two pairs of shoes, and the next morning, you guessed it, two pairs of completed shoes greeted the old shoemaker!! The shoemaker and his wife end up living happily ever after, wealthy from the elves work, of course.

How I wish I had my own set of elves. If I could start a task at night, go to bed, then wake up with the task finished, or wake up with double or triple the task complete! I'm putting in my order right now. One set of house-cleaning elves, STAT!