I'm back again, boys and girls. Tell me you missed me. Tell me you couldn't live another day without an enlightening, stimulating, inspirational post from the endless bounty that is my mind. Just tell me you are reading my words.....so I don't feel like I am wasting my time sending these sentences into the oblivion that is the world wide web.
I was away for about 10 days, and did not return home until this past Sunday. The hubby and I dropped the dogs off at the kennel (I was so very sad to leave them), drove to Seattle, and hopped a plane to the state of New Mexico where we spent many happy days with Dean's family. The trip for me was a real treat because in all the years Dean and I have been together (nine years, to be exact), I have never really gotten to spend much time with his extended family. Most of them I had met exactly two times before this trip. Others I had only met at our wedding, and other still I was meeting for the first time. So I saw this trip, as Paul Harvey would have said, as an opportunity for me to learn, "the rest of the story."
And you know what? It was a blast.
I feel so incredibly blessed because while I love my own family with all their little quirks and eccentricities, I also have a super terrific in-law family that I now feel I can say I really belong to. I now fully feel that I am related to all these great people, and more than once throughout the busy week I felt that warm, fuzzy, happy all over feeling that I get during those particular memorable family moments. I truly am a lucky girl.
So. Great trip, followed by a return trip to Seattle where Dean and I manned the gates at the pregame function before Apple Cup. Was it difficult getting into work mode after a long trip? You betcha. Did everything go off without a hitch? More or less. At the end of the day we got to spend time with our best friends so it really wasn't all that bad.
Now we get to the heart of the post. We return home Sunday evening and immediately start unpacking, doing laundry, and decorating the house for Christmas. Because really, I couldn't wait much longer to pull out the garland and the snowmen....not to mention all my adorable Peanuts decorations. Flash forward to Thursday, which of course is today, and my house looks like a tornado has ripped right through. I can't see the floor of our den due to all the dirty clothes piles that are still there, not to mention the overcrowded coffee table that is holding fall decorations that need to be put away, or the kitchen, living room, hell, all the floors in the house that are dirty, covered with dog hair, and in need of some serious TLC. Friends, in my world this is what I call UTTER CHAOS!
You know that feeling you get when coming home from vacation? Like you are waking up from a dream and you feel like the world and everything about "real life" has been put on hold, only to find out that isn't the case and the world has basically continued spinning without you? Yea.....that's been like my entire week. I feel slightly frazzled, extremely tired, and every time I look around at all the piles in every room of my house I want to just run away. I know I'm a huge drama queen, and honestly I am handling the disarray much better than I thought I would. I can be so anal about things, I'm honestly surprised I didn't spend all of Sunday and Monday deep cleaning and organizing until the house shone like new again. Instead I have been living in squalor all week, and haven't complained about it once! Okay, maybe I have once....but not for very long.
I think what is keeping me balanced is the fact that I know once Saturday morning rolls around I will be in house cleaning mode, and by late that afternoon order will once again be restored and I can breathe easy again. Every time I go on a trip I am always amazed at the time it takes for me to once again feel on top of things, both mentally and physically. Going on vacation is hard work, kids. I seriously needed this entire week off just to recoup and get my bearings!
I am just one of those people who needs order in their life. In the evenings when I get home from work I know it would be very easy just to fling my clothes on the bed and not give them a second thought, but if I did that I would actually give them a second, third, and maybe even fourth thought. I know that if I don't put those clothes away in my closet it will just.....bother me. Same with making the bed in the morning. Even if I'm running a few minutes late, I still talk myself into making the bed because it just looks so neat and put together. And coming home at night and seeing that made bed just makes me feel a little more calm. I could go on and on but I think you get the picture. And you're probably shaking your head thinking I should be seeing a shrink to deal with my OCD. Don't worry, I've thought that myself a time or two.
So while I am proud of myself for my flexibility in dealing with a dirty, unorganized house all week (I haven't made the bed once), I don't think it's a habit I will be adopting on a permanent basis. Order and cleanliness are two things that make me extremely happy, so until that changes I'm just going to keep on keeping on.
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