Time to clean house

There's nothing like knowing that company is coming to get me cleaning and decluttering parts of the house they will never see. It's pretty amazing how quickly I get through these clogged up areas in my house. There are times when I wish I was a neat freak...hmmm poor choice in words, just wish I was one of those people who can get things super organized and never have to worry about someone accidentally opening a closet door or dropping by unannounced.

I am clean and somewhat organized, don't get me wrong, but my family seems to think that things don't ever need to go back to where they were and since there are six of us, chaos is pretty much instant. I recently took my two teens dressers out of their room because they were not using them. They pretty much live out of their laundry basket. Again, they too, are clean and wear clean clothes but the clothes never make it to the dressers and I was beginning to loose my mind. To ease that problem I gave them extra baskets and they actually like it that way. Fine! Fine! I just don't want to see it on the floor, all over the room or under the bed. So far so good! It's just my way to choose my battles, besides who ever said your clothes had to go in drawers?

So back to my crazy cleaning. My mom in law, I named her Flor which means flower in Spanish because she loves gardening and her sister whom I call Dulce which means sweet because she is, are coming to visit for the weekend. Flor and Dulce come about every 2 months and it is the best thing. Now they are not judgmental nor do they ever comment on my clutter, cleanliness or my kids disastrous rooms, but I tell myself that I must have this done before they get here so that I can relax and so that's what I do.

I spent last week doing laundry, more than usual because I had to wash sheets, towels and comforters, shampoo rugs, vacuum under the furniture and clean window sills and windows and every horizontal surface in the house. Are you exhausted yet? Well I didn't get to everything but I did most of what I wanted and that's OK. I guess I always look forward to the nice words they say when they first come in--"Terie your house smells so nice" and "This place is always so tidy, I don't know how you do it." One of my favorite comments from Flor this weekend was "wow, look at your garden, it looks so lovely. You have done such a great job at keeping the weeds out, where do you find the time?" I guess I thrive on everyone thinking I'm superwoman. It feels good to get positive feedback on the things you work so hard to achieve.

I think many of you moms would agree that sometimes all that we do, day in and day out, becomes so routine that even our own family members forget to say thank you for dinner or thank you for switching my laundry or thank you for changing my bed sheets. A few simple words of gratitude, that's all.

Once the family arrives it's really no big deal to me that the family room is again filled with toys, books, newspapers, and Wii controllers because they see the progression of how things do get crazy sometimes and it's OK.

When no one is coming to visit we take care of the day to day living activities and easily forget to clear some clutter that's been stacking up somewhere else. I am thankful that I'm not a super organized person because that would mean that I would spend a lot of time organizing and picking up after others or ordering others to pick up instead of just enjoying my family. I'll worry about the toys, the books and the dirty laundry that once again landed on the floor some other time.

For now, I'll just take in m y early morning peace because soon, they will all be up and my house will be a home once again!