Don't get me wrong -- I am not a messy housekeeper. I do not condemn folks who are because guess what? That's just the way they are. I grew up in a house that I would say is quite dirty. I love my stepmom to death, really I do. But her housekeeping skills leave something to be desired, which she will be the first to tell you.
For example: one of the first evenings I was at my dad's house I was standing in the kitchen chatting with my stepmom, and I started to straighten the kitchen table. I am not quite sure why we have a kitchen table; we've always eaten in the dining room. I think the kitchen table is simply a catch-all. I straightened the darn thing in about ten minutes, and made sure to pile all of my stepmom's paperwork in two piles on the table.
My stepmom is a magnet for paperwork.
Anyhow, two days later it was like I had never even touched the table.
Don't get me started on the condition of the walls and how much scrubbing of them I did preparatory to my sister's arrival.
But sometimes I get a little messy. I also tend to like to blame it on Kurt, and so he gets yelled at for the mess in the house, even though it's not really his fault. Coins on the floor in the bedroom -- his fault. Papers on the kitchen table -- not his fault.
Oh my. Papers on the kitchen table?! Maybe I am turning into my stepmom...
However, if you hadn't noticed yet, dear reader, Kurt isn't here right now. And since Grace is just barely over two feet tall and can't reach the table, there is no one here to conveniently blame my messes on.
With HC coming over, I had to do something. I spent most of Friday straightening up the entire house. I even managed to uncover the top of my dresser, which I hadn't seen in several weeks. My kitchen table is almost free of papers; just the magazines I have yet to read.
This all means that my mood has been unusually mild lately. If you're a regular reader, you know I went through a pretty bad spell about a week ago. It's amazing how I connect the state of my house and also the weather with my mood. If my house is messy and the weather foul, as it was last weekend, I am all doom and gloom. If the weather is good and my house clean, then I am doing pretty swimmingly.
I guess I'll just have to keep a clean house for the rest of my life because God knows I can't control the weather!
Speaking of the weather, we actually had some summertime sun and heat today! Shocking, I know. Apparently it hit 80 degrees today, which is unusual for this summer. It's been so cold and wet. I think this is only the third or fourth time this summer I've been in shorts. Not that I'm complaining, but it's so weird for me. This is apparently normal Northwest summer weather, and the last two years of hot, nasty, sunshiny summers were unusual. I'm just glad it's not nearly as hot this summer as it was last.
We'll have more summer tomorrow, and then it's back to spring-like weather.
I think I jinxed the weather by buying a new window fan. I haven't even used them but maybe two days this summer.
At least this year no one's going around asking other people, "Hot enough for ya?!"