I should have known. When the donkey & the dog went racing past my office I knew that visitors had arrived. I had a sneaking suspicion that dad had brought his guests, Myron & Karla from South Dakota, through the woods to tour Windy Ridge. I was right. I instantly regretted spending the day painting instead of housekeeping.
“Anyone home?” Dad hollers.
“Hello!” I holler back while frantically tucking in my protruding belly & unruly love handles.
“Just thought I would show Myron the house” Dad says.
“Oh yes, I was just painting & cleaning up, the upstairs is a mess, well so is the downstairs actually…” my mumbling trails off as Dad ushers in the guests.
Enter Myron, Karla, Michelle, Nate & Nate’s wife. Dad proceeds with the tour. I start sweeping the kitchen like I was simply picking up where I left off. Pretending that I did not neglect housekeeping for painting. I suddenly remember that I did not look in the mirror that day. I vaguely recall Destiny putting wildflowers under my headband while I was painting. Were they sticking out like devil horns? Were they brown and withered into unrecognizable blobs? I didn’t dare feel. A swipe of my hand confirms that I still had yesterday’s mascara smeared beneath my eyeballs.
“I follow your blog” Michelle says.
Oh goodness.
“Yeah?” I reply
“How do you do it all? “ She asks
“As you can see, I don’t, just don’t tell anyone”I reply in a conspirational tone. I was dead serious. I have appearances to keep up you know. Pretty illusions to maintain.
“It is so neat to see it in real life” Michelle says “It looks different than on the blog”
I bet it does, I think to myself, you can’t see on the blog that though we have been here for 2 months this monster has never been fully construction cleaned. You can’t see that most of the windows still have plaster & stickers stuck to their surface. You can’t see the piles of un-packed boxes sitting under my chicken wire hutch and in the corners of every room.
Despite my dramatization, I am actually quite laid-back. It was so nice to see them, even if for a few minutes. I haven’t seen them in years. Nate was only a toddler and I was a teenager. I still have snapshots of him. Come again when you can stay longer. Safe travels back.
PS-showing up unannounced will make you the main characters of a blog post, you knew that, right? I just wish I would have remembered to snap photos to go with the story.
We were planning a BBQ today, but Sabra woke up with some sort of virus. While she slept, we puttered around the ranch. Levi hung my eden’s sign for the 2nd time(the wind blew it down the first time), I painted, he mowed and so on and so forth. Another wonderful day.
I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend!
Oh goodness. I dislike when people come to my home unannounced. It’s the worst pet peeve of mine. When they do I think ” why couldn’t you have come yesterday when my house was immaculate and the kid’s were wearing more than a t-shirt and undies!”. lol
Your property looks amazing. Edens bouquet store is on your property? That’s so cool. I can’t wait to order from you. =)
Take care and get some rest!
I’d love to come to Windy Ridge some day, it always feels so peaceful.
Who needs to clean when you have that view to look at!!!
My parents do that to me as well…although I may trump you…they even show them my storage space above the garage…it acts as a hold all for my treasures and many of the kids toys that I have no place to put. 🙂
Oh …just goes to prove…WE ARE NORMAL…not Martha
Janet
You completely crack me up.
Completely.
LOL!! I love your story telling:) You remind me of someone I once knew;) Can you guess who??
Oh, I’d just love to have a picnic on the top of that hill, and then ROLL down it with my kids!!! Just glorious!!! I can’t wait to move up yonder one of these days.
I miss your wonderful home on WR. You make us feel welcome always and I hope we are.
well,
then we are in the same boat. I constantly have “people” stopping by. people have learned that they will have to sit on my sofa and there might possibly be unclaimed undies sitting there also;-0
OMG! I absolutely hate unexpected visitors, luckily we don’t live near family so I get very few surprise visits from anyone, and if I do, I will not answer the door. My little way of teaching them a lesson, 😉
haha i love visitors…but of course they always come when my house is the messiest and im still in my pjs! at least you have that GORGEOUS view to distract them:)
you life reads like a dream
have i said that before
or am i the one dreaming
🙂