My Own Corner of Chaos

Just a couple weeks ago, we had one of those wake-up scares, where someone rings to say they want to stop by and you take one look at the state of the house and say, "We don't really live this way!" and commence to tripping over one another speed cleaning. I believe it is to our credit that in about 20 minutes the kitchen, both bathrooms and the living room were company ready. And then don't you know, they called and said they couldn't make it after all. So I stood everyone in the living room and made everyone look--This is how I want the room to STAY and if we all work at it individually, it won't be that tough.

We did a good job for a couple weeks. But inevitably I start doing paperwork at the coffeetable again, and my "bunker" by my chair starts collecting magazines and comics pages bearing Zits strips that I want to keep, or a recipe here or there that I decide I want to try for me, who cares if the rest of the family wants to eat the same old thing over and over and over. The thing was, no one came by the house AT ALL while I was cracking the whip and not allowing shoes to as much as hit the living room floor. My goal was to keep the kitchen table and the coffee table clear and the rest seemed to follow. My "shiny sinks" if you will. And I started trying to get my Flylady routine back. That was so lovely when I was doing it.

Like I said, it was great for a time. But when April 1 rolled around and I was faced with tenants stopping by to pay rent, well. Same old same old. Several pairs of socks, some shoes (including my own--let's be honest here) My corner needs pruning. Hubby's portfolio had landed on the pony wall again, and attracted buddies. The usual plethora of glasses and forks had settled invisibly on the end tables by the chairs. Dh's hat, an abandoned sweat shirt, the trash can was overflowing.....

My youngest is getting to the age where he's becoming more social. He wants his friends here ALL THE TIME, which is good really. I'd rather have them here than just about any place else. So he had one of his friends over Saturday (that got his room clean as well) and when this young man's mother came to pick him up that evening, my kitchen looked like, well, chaotic is a good word I guess. A valid excuse of course, was that I was cooking dinner and didn't put away as I went, which is a habit I am glad I've developed, but this weekend was strange. I hit a wall on Friday night and just didn't feel like doing much. At any rate, habit smabit--I was doing good to get dinner, esp. after dh said he'd grill the burgers I'd made and then got to talking to the people renovating the duplex behind us and forgot all about it. I had just finished giving the boys their dinner when T came to get her son. (I won't send a child away from here hungry!) so she came on in and sat among all the stuff on the kitchen table and you know something--she never saw it. She sat down and started talking to me, asking how my life in general was going, and wondering if I ever got sick of cooking for a family. (YES!) She said there are days when as much as she'd like to leave single motherhood behind (her son's dad was killed in an auto accident when he was a baby) there are times when she enjoys the fact that she and J can feast on cereal in the evenings. I could understand that! We just sat and yacked and it was satsifying. All the other crap melted away for a few minutes and it was so much easier to do after she'd left.

So in the end, does it matter that I don't rule my corner of chaos as well as I should? Yes. Yes it does, and I will continue to try to improve in that area, but when it comes to true friends, my MIL is right: If they've come to see me, they won't notice the dirt (or in this case, the clutter). And if they're coming to see the clutter--well, I don't want to disappoint them!