The threat of company...

is almost as good as actually having company.

We thought we might have a dinner guest tonight (a prospective seminary student come to check the place out) so we hustled around getting the joint cleaned up. We tend to have piles of stuff around - books, papers, sweaters cast off as the day warms up, shoes dropped at the front door and beyond, a bucket of sidewalk chalk in the middle of the living room floor (don't ask me why, I just live here), parts of craft projects. I don't mind the piles of books, really, but they have to be neatish piles, not falling down and spreading all over the floor.

Of course this is yet another benefit of homeschooling. The kids have more time to learn important life skills like cleaning the toilet, vacuuming dog hair off the stairs, quickly moving the dog blanket off the "foot table*" without dropping dog hair all over the place, making an impromptu glaze for a bundt cake, moving piles of books, papers, and other educational materials, responding to a "Mrs. G alert!" when the neighbor calls and says "I'm stopping by in a minute."

(* Toddler term for a hassock or ottoman.)

But the communication wasn't so great, and the student is not our dinner guest tonight.

But the house is clean! And now we have a free evening. What could be better?