When my kids were little, they were big on Richard Scarry books. I can't recall which of the many it was, but one of them featured a minor character named General Nuisance (I seem to recall him saying, "Won't you please get up, Mr. Soldier?" at reveille. Yeah, right.)
Well, I have the feeling that General Nuisance is about to visit our house, only it isn't really General Nuisance who's coming -- it's mild-mannered little Father Costin, who's coming to bless our house on Thursday. Nothing drastic, this is just his way of introducing himself to his parishioners and getting to know them better, and I think it's very sweet of him to want to visit everybody outside of the normal visitation cycle at Epiphany.
Here's the rub: Jim and I don't do a lot of entertaining, so our really-very-small house gets cluttered easily. All it takes is one or two pieces of paper, and, "Oh, I'll take care of this later," and inside of 24 hours, the place looks like a bomb hit it. Now, I cannot clean around a mess -- things have to be tidy before I can see the grime -- so there's also quite a bit of, well, grime around.
And Father C. has a reputation for being immaculate.
And Jim learned his cleaning skills in the military, where they did white-glove inspections once a week, and used to strip the floors and re-wax them on a weekly basis.
You see where this is going?!
I am very sure that my mild-mannered little priest would be horrified to think that he was causing so much Uproar in my house, but on the other hand, this is what happens when you get so busy with taking care of an old man's affairs that you Let Things Go. The kitchen table is still cluttered with various kinds of paperwork, and I remember my in-laws' house looking very much like ours does now, full of paperwork that they didn't want to lose track of (these people have never heard of, hello, FILING PAPER?!?!?!), so I shouldn't be surprised that their son has adopted their crummy habits.
So we will get our house in sufficient order that a civilized person can enter it and not run screaming to the Board of Health that he's about to come down with MRSA as a result of having set foot in our house. And it will promptly get as cluttered and grotty as it was before we cleaned it.
Sigh.
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4 comments:
May your visit with Father C. be blessed!
Giggle.
Does dear Fr C have any idea of the whirlwind your life is about to become ?
Don`t panic too much, though - Remember- he is there to bless the house, and will surely take it all in his stride :-)
Enjoy the blessing !
I had this same angst when our dear priest blessed our house for the first time. I was mortified when I discovered during our house blessing that he was heading downstairs to bless the basement, too (dang! That's where we put all the clutter from the main level!)
-C
We've had the same priest(s) for 29 years, so they are used to the fact that "Elizabeth is NOT a housekeeper!" LOL! But when Fr. Steven comes to bring us Holy Communion, since he is allergic to cats, we have to vacuum - carefully and thoroughly - all areas of the house he might go into. We invite Fr. John to bless the house - he isn't allergic to cats, so he can go into the rooms with cats in them! Otherwise, we'd have to board the cats for 2 days!!
. Being a "clutterer" myself, I know just how fast the house can get away from you! Bless you, my dear!
Love
Elizabeth
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