I wish that I had some inspirational story to tell about how I followed the Spirit and saved my toddler from eating rat poison or getting run over or something equally as devastating. I would strengthen testimonies, bring tears to the eyes of my faithful readers and everyone would immediately go and hug her children. But no. This is a silly story of how I DIDN'T follow the little urgings. Here are a few of the little urgings that I ignored and what followed:
1. When I'm alone in the house I always lock the deadbolt on the door. I feel safer that way and then Andy can't escape either. I walked past the door a few times and noted that the bolt wasn't done and didn't take the 1.2 seconds to lock it. Missed urging #1
2. I needed to do my dishes yesterday. In fact, they needed to be done the night before, but I chose to watch 'Miss Potter' instead of unloading and loading the dishwasher. I even got off the Internet early yesterday, ending an email to my mom and sisters saying I had to go and do the dishes. Nope. Didn't do them. I think I laid down for a nap or something. My kitchen wasn't clean either. The floor had soggy Cheerios that Andy launched during breakfast, the table was full of cereal boxes and spilled milk, the counter cluttered with old mail, grocery sacks, and baby paraphernalia. I don't know about you, but I'm one of those 'mental' cleaners--I do the task mentally before I can do it physically. I'll walk in the kitchen 15 times (to get a handful of corn chips usually) and think, 'man, this kitchen needs work' before I'll actually do anything about it.
So around 11:30 yesterday I'm in the back room trying to calm Josh down so he can nap and I hear this low gruff voice yell 'HELLO?' Um, there's someone in my house. Dang! Why didn't I lock the deadbolt? What will I do about the kids? (Andy was napping up to that point when the intruder yelled--he woke up and was a grump for the next few hours. Grrr!). I cautiously went into the kitchen and found two very LARGE men in overalls standing in my kitchen. 'We're the plumbers. There's a leak?' Huh. No one said anything about plumbers coming... but we do have a leak in the kitchen sink...which is full of dirty smelly dishes. I apologize for the mess and one of the very large men crawls under the kitchen sink to find the leak. Not two minutes later my landlord come knocking to say 'The plumbers are coming.' Uh, welcome. My house is a mess. At this point I'm mortified of the horrible condition, trying to hide the drying, crusty Cheerios stuck to the floor.
The only thing that saved me was that I had Josh in my arms. Everyone gives a little extra leeway to new moms, right?
If only I would have followed those little urgings my kitchen would have been clean when the plumbers got there, the door would have been locked so they couldn't just WALK in my home or wake up Andrew. My house wouldn't have been a mess when my landlord came by and gave it an appraising look.
Moral: always follow the tiny urgings too. It might not save lives, but it'll certainly save embarrassment.
4 comments:
Great story, although hearing about the two very large men just coming in was a bit alarming. That's crazy!
That would have freaked me out. This week I am on a get organized/get clean kick because last week my big fear came true--a pop in visit from my friend with the house in it's typical, embarrassingly disastrous condition. Still, if someone had to use my bathroom, I'd be mortified.
I would die if I heard a man in my house. I'm so glad you and your boys are safe. Great advice on keeping the house clean--if only I could actually do it...
I'm kind of neurotic about cleaning the bathroom--for the exact reason of an unexpected (or expected) guest needing to use the facilities. Kraig thinks I clean it too often (can you clean a bathroom too often?), but I'd rather be safe than sorry. Well, that's how I normally am. I won't tell you how long it's been since I last cleaned it now...
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