Sorry I Missed You

My house is messy. Really, if you know me you may not believe it but it is just soo messy today. Not filthy, gross or pig sty worthy. Just plain messy and even a little dusty. Webster's defines messy in 3 ways:

1. marked by confusion, disorder, or dirt 2. lacking neatness or precision All perfectly describe my home today. Marked by confusion or disorder, check! There are shoes randomly strewn about, piles of paper in various locations around the kitchen, valentines door wreaths lying on side tables. Lacking neatness or precision, yup! Dirty clothes that missed the hamper, breakfast dishes at the table, hair and toothbrushes on bathroom counters, stuffed animals that the puppy decided belong to him chewed up all over the house. I could go on and on, most things are simply out of place, oh and the floor could totally use a vacuuming too.

I know that my kids will never look back on their lives and think, “Wow, Our house sure was clean/messy!” Nope they will look back and think what a great childhood they had! Won’t they? That is the goal anyway and when I think about my own childhood, that is what I think, not whether or not our house was messy or clean. I really don't remember but either way, my mom worked outside of the home so if the place was messy she sure had a reason! Conversely though I am a stay at home mom, if not cleaning what else could I possibly be doing with my time??? Hmmpph that sentence really made me laugh and reminded me of this:

I really want you to think my life is just like that first picture only with a gleaming wood floor and organized closets in the background. I swear most of the time I get such great satisfaction from organizing and cleaning my own home! When I have time to do it and really get into it, it becomes all consuming and hard to put down the label maker and broom and focus on my girls and hubby. Yes sometimes I have to force myself to let it alone and enjoy my family! However, when I do let go of it all and live life without regard to the piles of stuff piling up, things get really out of control. It snowballs and then the place is really messy. But eventually someone will want to stop by and I need to start cleaning again…someone even asked me once to NOT clean before she came because it made her uncomfortable! What?! I can’t help it I just like my home to be clean and inviting when you come to visit. I won't judge you if you feel differently, I don't even care what your house looks like! It really is just all about my own freaky quirk.

The funny truth is that is not how we live day to day and frankly I am not always up to the task of cleaning for visitors! Like today my house is in what a friend and I call ‘Lock Down’. For her this means she turns that extra door lock on her way to work so that no family members can drop by to check on the dog! For me this just means I would not answer my door if you stopped by this morning. Yes my car is in the driveway. Yes I must be home because you did just speak to me on the phone. But I am on Lock Down so when you surprise me and press that door bell I simply freeze and drop to the floor. I will crawl over the piles of junk to a window and sneak a peek. The lucky UPS guy doesn't need to come in so yeah I'll answer the door for him, but you? Nope, I will lie against the wall like a cat burglar waiting for you to get the hint and leave. Oh I am not ashamed of this either, after all it is reasonable that I did not hear you because I was in the shower or deep in the basement doing laundry. Seriously, my house is just too damn messy to open the door!! Sorry I missed you!