2014

2014

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Is It A Sign Of Bigger Problems That I Only Clean My House...

...When Someone Is Coming Over?

I had a Trek Meeting and a Primary Meeting here a few weeks ago. That was good, my house looked quite presentable. Even the places behind the toilets were clean.

A few days later, though, I was surrounded by disaster.

Last week some friends were coming to dinner. When they cancelled I stopped cleaning immediatley and let the house return to it's natural state of chaos. Entropy.

A friend called last night and said she would come by today to see if they would like to use our house for Beehive Camp this summer. Oh, dear, this was like a hotel inspection. I set to work early this morning. Things were in a really bad state because I had emptied two desks with the plan to organize them. It was in the "worse before it gets better stage" in most corners of my house. I thought she'd be here at 10:30 or 11. She was here at 10. When the door bell rang, I said, "Time's up," and apologized for the remaining mess. Now that she's gone I'm leaving the mess for later.

Good thing my parents are coming on Saturday. The house will be clean soon.

But the real question is not, Am I A Lousy Housekeeper?
The real question is Is This Some Form Of Well-Developed Fraud?

I did almost every listed goal in the Personal Progress Book when I was in Young Women's. My leaders were very impressed. I'm not sure I learned anything.

I got a straight A's in High School. I definitely didn't learn anything.

I have a degree with a minor in Statistics. I had to be tutored through every Stats class I took. I still don't really get it.

I wrote papers in College (quite good papers, sometimes) on books I'd only read the first and last chapter of and the first and last paragraph of all the interim chapters.

We have Family Home Evening every week, but it doesn't seem to create the "joy in every sound" and "life a bliss complete" that the song says there will be. (Hymn #294)

Henry Higgins says of women:
"Straightening up their hair is all they ever do.
Why don't they straighten up the mess that's inside?"


Maybe he's describing me.

I think, perhaps, that I am not trying to master myself, but attempting to master the art of looking like I have my act together. So far, not successful at either.

...Well until I figure how to keep my act together (and my house, too) please keep visiting, or else my family will have to live in a pigsty.

3 comments:

Mel P. said...

We could compare notes. I don't have my act (or house) together either.

Slobodans said...

This post just proves once again that you & I have so very much in common. We're moving (just to Kerrisdale) and so our apartment has had to be shown...it's has been, as our landlord said, "immaculate" around here! However, now that our apartment is rented I am back to leaving close carelessly on the trunk at the end of the bed and letting dishes gather in the sink! *sigh*

Maybe we could visit one another???

Heather O. said...

I hear you. Or, rather, I can hear you from under this pile of dishes that I still have to do, under the pile of laundry I have to do, all the while wondering exactly how deeply I have to clean when my inlaws visit. I mean, is it a closet organizing clean, or just a mop the floor clean? I suppose that if I just cleaned as much as I analyzed, the question would be moot. But where's the fun in that?