Incoming...

This week I've got a friend coming in town before I head down to Charlotte for a weekend with "the girls" (sans husbands, babies, and cracked-out puppies). And next week my brother, sister-in-law, and their 4 kids are staying the night on their way up to a trip to DC. So I am cleaning. Down on my hands and knees scrubbing the base boards cleaning. Vacuuming the drapes, organizing the closets in the guest room, and even unpacking that darned candle box cleaning.

At what point do we get old enough to stop straightening up when our family comes in town? A nice perk to being in the hospital on bed rest was that I couldn't be held responsible for the cleanliness of my surroundings and oh yeah, there was a very expensive maid that came 3 times a week to clean and mop.

I have a handful of friends that I don't have to clean for. But not very many. For most people, I want to straighten up so that I at least appear to have it together. I clear off the cluttered mantle. I put the salt and pepper shakers back in the kitchen so as not to let on most nights we eat dinner in the family room. (You mean your mantle isn't where you keep your condiments?) I put all the trash cans without lids back on the floor and pray Henry doesn't go through them before the guests arrive. I shove all the toys in their appropriate bin and finally get around to sorting that giant stack of mail, tossing half full cans of Diet Dr. Pepper in the recycling, and use the swiffer duster for something other than Henry's diaper changing entertainment.

But I wonder, how much sanitizing is cleaning up and how much is covering up?

Do I really think that if my house is straight you will like me more? Or that if there are dust bunnies on my baseboards you'll know for sure that I'm really not ready to be an adult, much less a mom? Aren't my guests coming to see me? Or have I, without knowing it, put my house on the Home and Gardens tour?