December 23, 2008
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Today I'm going to roast a turkey, bake some more, pay some holiday calls, and possibly clean house but possibly
not. The director and organist are coming over tomorrow night in between services for a quick snack, and my houseguests arrive today, so I am hoping that I'll clean house. However, the truth is that I haven't done it yet, and I have been planning to do it since Saturday.Peg Bracken said, "You never hear anyone say, 'I just adore Marcia. She's such a meticulous housekeeper.'" And that is true. On the other hand, I don't want them going away saying, "Good Lord, have you ever seen such a tip!" Perhaps thinking what a happy, busy family we are would be a good compromise.
#1 son said to me yesterday, "If you want a tidy house, you should clean it up." He also made some austere remarks about the amount of unnecessary stuff we have around our house. My husband also makes comments like these. Evidently, I need to clean the house.
So these are my "before" pictures. Because part of the problem of housework is that no one really notices it, at least not at my house. They don't admire it or express appreciation or anything like that.The boys, in fact, if I specifically say, "Isn't it nice to have the house tidy?" will disagree with me.
Or remark that we just have too much stuff in our house.
But I can see my "before" pictures and my "after" pictures and feel as though I've accomplished something.
Plus, you're nicer than my menfolks, and wouldn't be scornful even if I didn't clean up.
Though you wouldn't want to roast a turkey in this messy kitchen any more than I do.Hmm.... I seem to be having trouble talking myself into this. What I need is a really fun and lively song of the day. "Run Run Rudolph" may be the best choice, but I think you've heard that eighty-eleven times by now this season.
I offer you "Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day," a medieval carol which we just hardly ever sing nowadays. Here's the tune I prefer
Find the words here. Then, if you find yourself wondering, "What the ---?" you can find a variety of expanations of the words here.
Basically, we're looking at a very old song from the days when a carol was a dance. Later puritanical traditions separated dance from Christmas carols, and from worship in general, but we don't have to be bothered by that.
As for today's baking, it's time to bring out the scrapbook of family recipes. In this tattered book, we have all the great favorites for Christmas. I have noticed quite a bit of talk about ginger cookies around here lately (and by IM as well), so today we must have Ginger Crinkles made, and then either Venetians or Napoleon's Hats, depending how ambitious I feel at that point.As for the guests and the housework...
Perhaps, if there is enough good food around, they won't notice what the house looks like.
Comments (7)
I understand... and sympathize. I've been planning for days now to polish my kitchen floor, and I keep on not getting it done. It's the one thing that actually does produce the kind of comments you'd like to hear from your menfolk. When I polish that floor, my husband notices it and remarks on how nice it looks. Other than that, I could literally paint the whole house blue and nobody would notice.
When I'm in a time crunch and need a clean house quickly, I focus on creating large areas of uncluttered space. It's a tip I read in a women's magazine, and it really helps. All the stuff scattered on the dining room table gets piled in a tidy stack, and likewise for the coffee table in the living room. Then I light a few candles and hope my guests find my tidy stacks as tidy as I think they are.
@rampaige -
Excellent advice. Since writing this, I went out and had coffee with a friend, so now I really need that-- off to make some tidy piles!
I think your tidy house looks lovely.
Regarding the Ginger cookie situation - yay!
I think we should reinstitute a circle dance around the Christmas tree with the carol singing. Don't you?
@alissasorenson - Absolutely!