Hooray for Visitors (And Their Mess?!)
Besides great company, one of the greatest things about having out-of-towners is perhaps the ‘glasses’ you put on as you walk around your house. You notice every speck of dirt, clutter pile, paper stack, crumb, misplaced toy, etc. And you work hard to make your home shine – so your visitors feel comfortable and can rest easy. And – perhaps most importantly – so you aren’t mortified by your laziness in keeping up with the cleaning routine. Ok, maybe that’s just me. Haha.
This past weekend we were lucky enough to have friends from California come in for a visit. Needless to say, on Saturday before our visitors arrived, our house had never looked better. And today, you’d never know we lifted a finger to clean / straighten / tidy. Think tornado. Of stuff.
After all the elbow grease we expended last week, Kenny and I vowed to keep our house in good shape. Gavin and Grace, however, are still living here. And, let’s face it – being 8 and 7, they have little expectations for a clean home. They’d much rather tear through from room to room – whirling dervishes reminiscent of Hansel and Gretel – leaving toys and little ‘reminders’ like socks, flip flops, goggles, etc. instead of breadcrumbs everywhere they’ve been. Although, they leave the crumbs, too. Like Hansel and Gretel on steroids – only they are leaving their mark vs. mapping a trail home.
Trying to keep our pact going strong, I told Grace that she was not allowed outside until she cleaned up after herself. She hemmed. She hawed. She pouted. She crossed her arms. And rolled her eyes. Yet, I didn’t budge. I did, however, ask her if she remembered how nice our house looked on Saturday before the Finnegans visited. She said, “Yes.” I asked her if it looked really nice and if she liked having such a clean house. She said, “Yes.” I then said, “Well, I just don’t understand why it looks so messy today.” And she said, “Well, I don’t know. The Finnegans probably messed it up.”
Nice.
Really nice.
Such a classy little lady I am raising.
Thankfully for the Finnegans, Grace was under the weather this weekend so they didn’t get the full Grace experience live and in person.
And don’t worry, I pointed out every piece of mess that was hers. Then had her look around and tell me where the Finnegans’ mess was. She came up empty. 😉
Hooray for out of town visitors – without them, Grace would have no one to blame her mess on. What a pistol!