Secondly its for accountability for myself, because right now my house MORTIFIES me. But I really don't have time to clean it; in fact I really shouldn't be blogging right now because I have too much to do! Kyle and I were in and out of town for the last two weeks because of traveling, his fire training, his graduation, etc. The last week we literally did not spend more than 12 hours at a time in the same city. And we weren't even in the same city most of the time! A few days I was in different STATES! Which was gloriously fun, but housework suffered. We'd arrive late at night, fall into bed, wake up early the next morning, switch dirty clothes out of our suitcases with clean clothes, and hit the road again. Again, oodles of fun, but physically draining and I could hear the house just sighing as I left the driveway, leaving it uncleaned.
There's usually trade off's in life. If you invest in one thing you inadvertently withdraw from another thing. If I play on the computer for an hour, that's one hour I've taken away from making Christmas presents! Or if I spend an hour on my Sunday school lesson, thats one hour I have less to clean or cook for my husband. Neither trade off is necessarily BAD, but they are just facts of life. So my trade-off this month has been being able to spend time with some wonderful people but not necessarily be the picturesque housewife.
Which would be fine, if everyone would stay away from my house! But the last few days God has humbled me and brought some dear friends to my home who really needed some good fun fellowship and laughter - despite the mess. And I didn't even stress about it after my initial apology!
It aggravated me at first because right before this traveling blitz I had almost gotten the house completely clean, just the way I like it. The bedroom was even vacuumed! And now its a disaster zone. The dining room table makes the Tower of Pizza look like a German bunker in stability. One wrong move and the whole tower of junk on my table will come crashing down! But there have been other priorities. GOOD priorities recently. Heart-to-heart talks with kids after our scheduled programs, encouraging laughter with friends who rarely experience that without the aid of alcohol, stolen moments of relaxing with my husband between busy days, and perusing of fun stores with my best friend.
There's nothing wrong with having a squeaky clean house, and there's nothing wrong with having a trashed house (although it may be a little dangerous in the dark!) as long neither take over your life. But as my great-grandma says, just make sure you don't have one or the other most of your life! Live a little and ignore the clutter here and there, but don't abandon your womanly responsibilities forever either. The memories we've made the last few weeks will last me forever and the conversations I've had will have eternal impact on other's lives. So much more valuable than if my sink has a little toothpaste.
That being said, it is becoming winter, which means its sick season, which means that I really can't afford to let there be ANY breeding grounds for germs in my home. Since I work with kids, my husband and I run into EVERY ILLNESS that runs through our fair city (the lot of teachers I'm afraid) so I'm gonna finish this post and see what can be done about my leaning-tower-of-pizza table before I have to dash off to my next job!
(I was gonna do a lovely collage at the bottom of this, but my computer froze and ruined all of it, so you only get this one solitary picture. Sorry guys!)