Was reading my new favourite blog today it and got me thinking about embarrassing messes. You know, the ones where you kid yourself into thinking that as long as no one drops over, you will simply clean it up on the weekend, and if they DO drop over, you will just casually talk to them at the door until they go away. You know that mess, the one where even if you did actually invite them IN the door, they could see the drifts of stuff the second they hit the entryway. Not to mention the unwashed dnner dishes from the night before, the unswept floor with sultanas squashed from who knows when, the crusty weetbix in dried milk puddles on the coffee table, the unfolded mass of washing on the lounge and the mile high pile of crafting items all over the dining table (OK, lets not kid ourselves here, it is no longer the dining table, no dining happening here!) - all of course in a lovely open plan living area where you can't even shut a door to the offending area/s.
OK, so now that we have that picture painted, I can tell you about my most embarrassing mess. Imagine ALL of the above, as if it were YOUR house, now add a few kids on holidays, subtract one parent, double the amount of mess, and you have me on a Friday when Mik has been away for about 5 weeks. Of course, it wasn't any ordinary Friday. It was the day that I was out ALL day, hadn't done ANY of my chores for the day, including forgetting to empty the kitty litter (six cats... noice!!!), and then right at the end of the day, I sprained BOTH of my ankles. Remember that? Yep, for those of you who haven't read back that far in my archives, I sprained BOTH of my ankles at the same time. GREAT!!!!
So, I have to call a friend to come and pick me up with the kids and get me home (bless her dear soul!). So in she comes to the house of total caos. I couldn't even walk in a straight line through the house to the lounge to sit down, had to do the slalom around the toys, the clothes and the rest of the rubble! And all I could do was apologise at the mess, the smell, and all the rest. Argh!!!!! And what could I do about it??? NOTHING!!!!! I couldn't walk!!! Could I tidy it up the next day when she came over to help cook dinner and put the kids to bed? NOPE!! All still in the same places except for the path I had forged to get the computer chair through (my homemade wheelchair). Ohhhh.... I don't know what is worse, someone seeing THAT mess, or having your feet in stirrups with a cast of nursing staff watching for a baby to arrive!
My poor kids were the ones who had to clean that mess up, directed by me, with a rather large plastic box that we simply put to one side until I could be bothered to sort it out again. So, the lesson learned? NEVER let your house get into such a state that you feel like you are going to die of embarrassment even though it IS an emergency situation. ESPECIALLY when you are on your own and you have to rely on others in said emergency.
If you haven't yet checked out Dawn's blog, its a fun read! I suspect that it will be prompting me to write more about the daily going ons of the Quall household in future. Sorry 'bout that...