The Madness Begins

Let the cleaning spree commence.

Tomorrow Uncle Dave arrives at my house, and we are off to Little Rock, Arkansas for a classroom visit. I am totally excited about the classroom visit: I am NOT excited about Uncle Dave coming to my house.

And let me explain before I get in REALLY big trouble. I don't like to clean. I hate cleaning. If I could afford it, we would have a cleaning service come to our house three days a week to help us keep up.

Uncle Dave is like the cleanest person I know. If you've ever watched reruns of the TV show "Full House", you'll understand when I say Uncle Dave reminds me of Danny Tanner. He likes to have a place for everything, and everything had better be in its place. Even with three dogs, Uncle Dave manages to keep his house and pick-up spotless. Even the farm equipment is clean. And if it's not clean, he gets out the hose and Shop-Vac and goes to work.

I am not that kind of person. Why clean when it's just going to get dirty again tomorrw? If I tried to keep my house and cars as clean as he does, I would never sleep.

I would clean.

I would never eat, or play, or get any writing done.

I would clean.

The kids would never see mommy again, at least not without a vacuum or dust rag. There would never be any t-ball or other games for mommy to attend. My daughter would forget what I look like, and my husband would wonder what happened to his wife because...

I would clean.

This is not my idea of a full and satisfying life. I've seen lots of blog posts and magazine articles about people who looked back on their lives and said they never once thought, "Gee, I wish I had cleaned more."

I'm not sure why Uncle Dave and I are so different. We share the same gene pool, but he got the clean genes, and I got the 'clean only when the laundry is piled so high the door won't open, and when you walk across the hardwood floors they crunch' genes.

But I am so excited about this classroom visit, and Uncle Dave helping me with my first visit, and if that means I have to do a marathon cleaning event before he arrives to keep him from freaking out, then that's what I'll have to do.

Since the visit is on Friday, I'll try to post later that night. With any luck, I might have pictures to show everyone.