Morning ARGH!

This seems to be one of those weeks, so I thought I need to do a little thought on mornings so far this week. Well, it’s Wednesday, so just a few mornings, but still.

Monday I had to drop the munchkin at my in laws as my husband was working. So I got up at 6 (well, that was after getting up at midnight for teething, 4 for the dog puking and again at 5:30 for the baby), got ready and woke the baby around 7 (who was none to happy about being woken – she’d had such a long night of waking me up!) to bring her to their house.

We were running late. Shocking, I know. But traffic was actually pretty light (I forgot it was spring break here), so we made it there early and I headed towards work. As I was early, it occurred to me… I could go to church this morning before work if I wanted. Now, this isn’t something I normally do. But a few weeks ago was the anniversary of the day my Dad died and always try to go that day to pray for him / remember him. When I went to mass that day, I realized – this is totally on the way from my in laws to work and the timing is actually perfect to get me to work on time. And it is Lent… I only drop her to their house once a week – I could go one extra time a week. It’s an 8 am weekday mass – it never lasts more than 30 minutes.

I really didn’t feel like going on Monday. I mean, really just wasn’t in the mood. But I also was thinking – today’s not too busy and I really do have time for this. And it is holy week. And that darn Catholic guilt got the better of me and in I went.

I left thinking I was glad I went as the priest had had some really good insights and I’d learned a bunch of stuff I didn’t know. Then midway across the parking lot I started to focus on work and realized – Oh God, I have an 8:30 meeting (it was 8:26) at the other building that I’ve only been to once and don’t quite know how to get to – but it’s at least 10 minutes away from my office (which was still a good 5-10 mins from where I was). Then I uttered a string of expletives (oh, I get so much from religious experiences), as I ran towards my car.

My husband always says no one drives as poorly as a Catholic late for mass. It’s that mad rush of speed trying to get there on time (he knows – this is us nearly every week!) and it seems to flow into the really poor driving coming into and going out of the parking lot. I sort of combined the poor driving of “late for mass” with poor parking lot etiquette with totally late for a meeting with a colleague, my boss and his boss’s boss (or maybe 3 levels up). Oh crap.

Yes I made it. Yes I was late. But not too bad and life goes on.

So let’s move on to today’s mad rush… My Mom arrives on a flight about 3 this afternoon. I have done SO LITTLE to prepare for her coming. I did do some mad vacuuming at lunch on Monday (yeah, Monday was just one of those days), but I hadn’t gotten around to cleaning toilets or just tidying! My husband did a little of the tidying yesterday, but he had the munchkin, so bathroom cleaning was not hitting the agenda.

He left this morning with the munchkin to take the dog to the vet at 7:30 (this did follow some really nice morning cuddles with her!) and I realized – I actually had the house to myself for an hour and if I rushed getting ready, I could get some of this stuff done. So after throwing myself together, there came the mad rush of wiping off bathroom counter tops and throwing some cleaner at the toilets – maybe the scrubbing bubbles will really scrub all by themselves… Then I rushed around with the swiffer trying to hide all the errant dog hair. Threw things in the dishwasher! Threw papers in recycling! Hid things in closets! And squeaked into work a little later than intended, but not too bad.

When did I become this person?

Today’s prompt – how much cleanup do you do before your parents or in-laws arrive? How much is real cleaning and how much is hiding? What are your best secrets for the “fast” clean? Do your significant others help much (or hinder!)?