I've been blessed with the opportunity to show hospitality to many people during our time here in Langley. Whether it is for dinner, for an overnight visit, for game night, for a playdate, or whatever, we have enjoyed using this beautiful home God has given us as a place to welcome guests!
This past weekend we had guests, and guess who showed up the week before?
Alexis. I didn't ask her to come, but as soon as she heard that we were having friends come for the weekend, she was on my doorstep with a to-do list for my preparations. A few of the things on her list were that I needed to wash the windows, dust, sweep the floors (including the baseboards, which hardly ever get included!), mop, clean the light fixtures, vacuum the stairs, clean the blinds, and so on. I should have known she'd show up. She has impeccable timing for things like that. I did take some of her suggestions, but thanks to these other two posts (
here and
here) about hospitality, I was also able to say no to many of her "shoulds." Alexis' house is well-organized and spotless-- I don't know how she does it with a child in the house and all of her other activities!
But then again, my guests didn't come to hang out with Alexis, they came to see me. Jeana. Not Alexis. And I (Jeana, not Alexis) have less energy than I would like, so if I waste it all on cleaning the baseboards and light fixtures, I will have that much less energy for our time together. Is there anyone out there who would turn their nose up at me if my baseboards were not clean? Would you insist on staying somewhere else or eating somewhere else if there was a bit of dust on my chandeliers? I have not yet come across someone who would admit to those things, but maybe they're just being kind.
What do you think? What are the things you don't get to before guests arrive?
-JLR
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4 comments:
You have chandeliers!?!
Matt, everybody in North America has chandeliers - do you think we're uncivilised or something?!
Jeana - we certainly didn't notice anything unclean, and if we had we wouldn't have felt any less welcome! I think it would be sad if the pressure of having to make the house perfectly clean meant we were more wary of offering hospitality (as I think sometimes happens), so I'm glad you didn't listen to all of Alexis' suggestions!
Oh, and Alexis - please stop cleaning so much, or the sourdough starter won't have any bacteria to feed on.
I felt funny using the word 'chandeliers' too... it seems we need a word for the multi-light, less-formal light fixtures we tend to use in N America.
Mark, I'm glad you felt welcome here and I think you're right about our expectations for ourselves reducing the amount of hospitality we show. It's sad, really.
My sourdough starter is thriving... it seems we still have plenty of bacteria around here despite my best cleaning attempts. :)
Funny reading this as I'm frantically trying to finish planning menus and shopping and getting my house ready for company this weekend...
Whenever I get stressed out about cleaning my house for company, I think back to something a friend told me a long time ago. She had a magnet promintently displayed on her fridge that read, "If you'd like to see me, please feel free to stop by and visit any time; if you'd like to see my house, you'll need to make an appointment."
For me, it's not all bad. I do tend to do a lot more cleaning and even some deep cleaning when I have guests coming, but I feel better and more productive in a clean house after everyone has gone home. I've always been a procrastinator, and having a deadline actually helps me get things accomplished that might never get done otherwise. I just have to make sure that I don't overwhelm myself with unrealistic expectations.
We did clean a few baseboards this week, but mostly just in the bathrooms (Unfortunately in a house full of boys this is NOT an optional chore) Luckily Jacob and Eli were excited to learn how to clean up their mess and I didn't have too much touch up work to do after they were done and had gone to bed...
PS, don't even think about looking at my chandeliers when you come to my house. I attempted to dust them when we moved in last Fall, but they were greasy and the dust was too caked on so I gave up... I figured since I didn't like them anyway, we could just replace them with new light fixtures - I wonder when that will happen...
Jaime
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