Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Break Me

Is your house visitor ready? I mean, if someone were to show up, out of the blue, would you be able to let them in without dying of embarrassment? I guess I am talking more to the parents here. Let's face it, if I can walk from one end of the house to another without tripping over a toy or stuffed animal, then it means my Kiddo is on vacation somewhere without me!

Yesterday I was doing some laundry and in the master bedroom hanging up a load of shirts. I heard a motorcycle drive up in what I thought was my driveway. Normally that would not be unusual, but Hubby was still at work and it didn't sound like his bike. My imagination being what it is, I began thinking about just who would be cruzin' on two wheels to see me. There are a couple of people, but it would be highly unlikely that they'd come see me after all these years - even though it would be fairly easy to find me.


Suddenly I began to see my house with new eyes; the eyes of a visitor. It is a rare thing for me to see things this way - I spend day in and day out in my house and after a while my "sight" sort of glosses over things. Now I was seeing all the toys on the floor; and not just what was in the walking path, but the odds and ends under the chairs and behind the bookcase and stuffed in places they shouldn't be. I saw the basket of laundry on the chair in the living room and the shoes that are EVERYWHERE. I saw the dust and the little strands of string on the carpet, the unswept floors and crooked pictures on the walls. I realized then that if someone were to unexpectedly show up at my door I would have to be really weird and not invite them in! I just couldn't, I wouldn't let someone see it this way.


Every couple of weeks or so, my inlaws come out for a visit. Whenever they do, I spend the entire day, mad-fast cleaning. I straighten and scrub (and hide) and pick up and vacuum and mop and throw out trash more in one day than I sometimes do in a month. And even though the house still wouldn't be white-glove clean, it is presentable enough that I am only slightly embarrassed when they get here.


I told my Hubby the other night that once a week he should tell me they are coming, just so I get the house picked up. His response was that it wouldn't work because eventually I would think he was "crying Wolf" and not clean at all. He's probably right.


But I have been trying to pick up once a day even though it may not look like it by the time Hubby comes home from work. I've dusted twice this week already, even though it doesn't look like it.


Hopefully I can get into some sort of routine or something. Maybe one day my neighbor will actually be invited in the house.


On a totally unrelated note, Kiddo just went to bed with a 102.6 degree fever. Poor guy. The last thing he said before drifting off to sleep - "Mommy. Cowboy." umm, ok. I wonder what that meant.


Sleep well my son. I hope you feel better in the morning.

Until,

D

1 comment:

karrie said...

There is always something weirdly out of place--like Max will drag a pair of my underwear out of the laundry and put them on Elmo. One day when his speech therapists were here, he pulled a phallic, fleshy thing out of his legos and began rubbing it on her face. She was like "Uh, WTH is this? Old string cheese"

It was a tube of solid cocoa butter that he had popped out of its plastic push-up container, and hidden. lol.

So yeah. Visit me at your own risk, world.