Answer: Clean, Camouflage, Hide...Clean, Camouflage, Hide...

Question: What is Debbie's mantra for the next 4 days?

Do you ever do this: live very comfortably in your house or apartment, knowing full well that you could probably spend a little bit more time picking up, dusting, putting away, but for one reason or another and mainly because it really isn't that bad, you juuuuust let it go? And then....when someone, who has NEVER been before, decides to come and visit, you start looking at your abode with different eyes...I was using my late Grandmother's...and suddenly you realize that your soon-to-be-here guests, unless they are blind, might be a tad bit disappointed? Uncomfortable? Disgusted?
~~sigh~~
My sister and her husband will be flying in from Atlanta on Thursday. I have four days to either get this place whipped into shape...or move to a new house all together.

I actually asked a friend of mine, who lives in an incredible house and whose children are grown and gone if we could borrow their house while they were out of town (conveniently, at the same time my sister will be here).

She laughed.

She thought I was kidding.
I might have been....just a little.
~~heavy sigh~~
Clean
I have spent the last day and a half doing just that. The boys' room is now in okay condition....considering that it is somewhere between this

and this


I'm thinking that we are okay here. We do need to clean out a drawer or two for my sis and BIL to use...unless, they don't mind living out of their suitcases for the duration....Hey! it's only 7 days!! :-)

Camouflage
There are certain "storage places" in this house that are just out of control.
For example.....

here are some shelves in our bathroom that are full of vitamins, lotions, aromatic body washes and soaps, sprays, powders and what-not that I have no control whatsoever when it comes to NOT buying when I see them.

(In my defense, I don't know what particular scent I'm going to want to wear of a day....I'm prepared for pretty much anything.)

So, last weekend, I spent a couple of hours making these..

to camouflage the evidence of my hedonistic ways. A successful venture, if I should say so myself.

(Yeah, yeah, I know...I could have spent the two hours actually going through all those and getting them organized...but...look how nice that curtain looks...and look again....I also made a curtain for the door!!)

Hide
Just for the record....
do NOT open this door...
**Look!! Something seems to be actually trying to escape!!

..and don't even think about touching this...

I'm just saying.


I think that the excitement of my sister coming for a visit is way more powerful than that of the desire to go and clean the toilet one more time. I can already feel the time until I have until their arrival sloooowly slipping away!!

So....

I decided.....in hopes of getting over this unneeded anxiety

(They're family, for crying out loud!!!):

a) We will use very little lighting...keeping it dark may be the plan here...I have candles and I'm not afraid to use them.

b) We will have on hand...mass quantities of alcohol....which will make anything (or anyone) absolutely beautiful!! If anything, they will quickly go to sleep and not have time to reeeeally have a look.

********************

FYI
In the 18 years I have lived here, other than my mom (who has been here 8 or 9 times), her friend Karen (who came with Mom one time) and my good friend Lila (who actually lived here before)....Sara and Jarrett are the only others who have chosen to venture across "the big water" and come be tourists.
Sis Sara and BIL Jarrett are now #'s 5 and 6 on our list of "people who can stay with us when we someday move to Hawaii".

Everyone else?

We'll help you find a very nice hotel, close to our place.

At least that way, I won't have to clean!!

Again...I'm just saying.