I got this e-mail from my brother, a monk:
PS, I wish I could take you around this monastery today. Huge floor-polishers -- spinning ones, and one that you ride like a Zamboni on an ice rink -- are everywhere. There are also long ladders and dusters on wands. And someone delivered a harpsichord to the church, behind which wooden risers are being built for a chorus of 100. The take things seriously around here.
I replied to him: "I wish I had a riding floor polisher!!" Oy.
When you host very seldom, and you home school, and you have a ten person family...well, getting ready for the hosting has it's attendant cleaning requirements.
What this looked like in my house this year (through today...there's still the upstairs):
1) clear out the schoolroom--all books on shelves, desks pushed against walls, chairs stacked, floor washed: making room for an extra dining table or two on Christmas.
2) wash couch cushions that need extra "attention", pin one broken cushion zipper (no time to get it fixed before Christmas).
2b) move couches, separate sectional (ew, ew, ew--vacuum off sides of each section), sweep under couches, then mop.
3) mop kitchen floor, make one son detail under counters and appliances, hand scrubbing and wiping down the floor's perimeter.
4) scour main floor bathroom.
5) purge and reorganize toy room (three black garbage bags and a give away bag y'all! Oh yes!)
6) Hang "curtains" (bed sheets) and create a "set" for the children's annual Christmas pageant.
Tomorrow: vacuum that basement, attack all laundry that remains (because you cannot be caught on Christmas without socks!), clean bedrooms and scour bathrooms.
Then the fun begins! I get to make an antipasto platter and a fruit platter (do we all love Trader Joe's?!) and a huge bunch of mini roll sandwiches.
What went wrong:
My husband left with my three oldest girls and took them to the Nutcracker. Very special. So sweet. They were so happy and excited....and I was left with 4 boys and a dog. Some of the boys may have been in a teasing/fighting cycle today. The dog did eat a tray (yes, tray) of Christmas cookies. I had a headache. We still managed to clean the toy room and basement together, and then made a mad dash for last-minute confessions that weren't being held (hubby read the bulletin wrong). As I dashed for confession, I forgot to turn the stove on, with the meat for dinner sitting in the oven, ready to go.
How it all ended well:
My husband rendez-voused with me at a mexican restaurant. He was starving and I didn't have dinner. Instead, we sat in a warm restaurant and ate chips and salsa. We made it home in time to get Aragorn to basketball practice. I even began to wrap presents!
Speaking of which, I gotta run!
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