Last week, I got a call from a family member who said they would be in town next Monday. Would we be available for a visit? Of course, I said.
A few days later, when I looked at our calendar, I realized that that specific Monday turned out to be the day before our cleaning crew comes for their monthly cleaning. This meant that our house would be at its dustiest and dirtiest when they came to visit. This would be especially true because the construction crew installing new siding had knocked a hole in the wall, leaving a pile of plaster in one corner.
As if that wasn’t enough, I remembered that our personal chef, who comes once a week to prepare meals for us, comes on Tuesdays. By Mondays, it’s pretty slim pickin’s in the fridge.
As these thoughts came to mind, I took a deep breath and when I exhaled, a picture of my mother came to mind: when she was expecting company, we thoroughly cleaned the house. Before anyone would set foot in our home, everything needed to be spic and span. Plus, we would prepare more food than we would ever eat.
I’ve also been of a mind that both of those things were necessary when entertaining. The past few years, these rules that I held for most of my life have been lessening. Still, our guests were to arrive on the day when our house would be at its dirtiest, the fridge its emptiest. To boot, I knew that most of our favorite restaurants are closed on Mondays.
What was I to do?
Well, I’ll tell you what I didn’t do. I didn’t clean and I didn’t cook. A wise part of me figured that they weren’t coming to inspect our home for cleanliness or to be fed. They were coming to see us, and we were excited to see them.
Fast forward: they just left, and we had a wonderful time despite the dirty house and very little food to serve them. As it turned out, our eight-year-old guest had brought his own food (he only eats 8 things) and the mother agreed to a fish lunch because our favorite seafood restaurant is open on Mondays so we got takeout.
Since I hadn’t knocked myself out cleaning and cooking, I had plenty of energy to play Connect Four and a made up game with marbles on a Chinese Checkerboard. I also had enough energy to rummage through the storeroom and dig through dishes and mementos, passing on items that we don’t need and that were meaningful to our guests.
At times, I could almost feel my mother rolling her eyes about the dirty house and sparse food. But the more I thought about her, I remembered how even her perfectionism with such things lessened as she got older. Maybe she would understand, after all.
I love to hear from you so it you feel so moved, hit reply to this message and tell me how you are doing this autumn. It would be helpful if you could share with me what old patterns you have ditched and the subsequent results.
IMAGE: This humongous refrigerator was one of the things that attracted me to the house we purchased and now live in. It was so impressive that I took its picture. Alas, it died a few months after we moved in. My mom would have love it!
