Motivation

What motivates some people to clean like mad before a visitor comes? Going back to one of the Mitford books (one of which I quoted yesterday) the lady in the book was preparing for a party of about 60 (?) people and spent months doing everything from replacing the parlor curtains to repainting half of the inside of the house, to planning a veritable feast of fine finger foods all for about 4 hours of entertainment.

Was it worth it? Or will you have an aneurysm before someone asks you to do it again next year?

But what really drives us to such extremes? I'm sitting here typing about this when my visiting teacher is due to come in about 2 hours and all I've managed to do today is take a kid to school, put another one down for a nap, take a nap myself, and watch Wallace and Grommet a time and a half. Yet I've got this deep urge to get up and be a 5 Minute Martha, clean like a demon, and go buy flowers for the table.

Is this pride? Fear? Shame? I do take pleasure in welcoming someone into my spotless home but then I cry the next day when all that work comes down around my ears resulting in a pig sty all over again. And again. And again.

I'll have to think about that while I do dishes and do a stash and dash.

My poor visiting teacher likely has no idea what pain I go through to have her over, and she's so dang cute and sweet. Of course she doesn't want to inconvenience anyone and would never dream of putting her poor, pregnant charge to effort on her part just so she can do what our church says is a service.

Maybe I just need to allow it to be a service. She's giving me a reason to clean after all. :) And the pleasure of having someone over in that brief moment when it actually will be clean. Maybe I'll take pictures of my super-cute visiting teacher in my clean house and tape it to the inside of some sunglasses so I remember that feeling. Yes. Good idea.