100 posts! Wow. I hadn’t realized I was so close to a milestone or I would have made an effort to post sooner. . .
Last week Project Man invited a colleague and her family to dinner at our house. She is the mother of four children the last two being 10 month old twins. DARLINGS! Oh, and her husband is very nice, too. Anyway. . . Project Man informed me about 10:00 that morning that the event was for that night around 5:00. EEK! Keep in mind that this was a Monday morning which generally entails Weekend Disaster Recovery Projects such as laundry, bathrooms, and just trying to find the floor. So, yeah, I was a bit stressed. But with FOCUS and ZEAL I cleaned and cooked and all was ready. Now for the amazing part. The meal went of just fine, the conversation was friendly and fun, children were moderately well-behaved, etc. A really nice evening spent with really nice people. The next time Project Man saw this friend as work, she commented on how obedient our children were doing as they were asked on the first request. (It’s about this time that I started choking violently and my eyes started to bug out.) She also was impressed with how clean our home was (remember what I said about FOCUS and ZEAL) and that they left feeling like they maybe needed to take parenting lessons or something. Good grief. Project Man was laughing so hard as she was telling him this that he could hardly breathe. He graciously, and honestly, told her, “We were having COMPANY! Julie had spent the day cleaning and cooking and threatening the children to be on their best behavior.” So much for the illusion of having it all together. The moral to this story is this: It’s all in the presentation. If you want people to think you’re amazing, invite them to dinner and work like a crazy person and it will all work out.
On a more reflective note, Project Man and I were relating this woman’s comments to our children last night. (They were shocked as well.) We all decided that maybe what they felt was the Spirit in our home and just didn’t know what to call it. (Certainly could not have been obedient, polite children.) They aren’t particularly religious people, but good people that want good things for their family. Maybe someday they will be ready to hear how to get that Spirit in their home, too.
2 comments:
I could really use some FOCUS and ZEAL around here! :)
But from what I hear, I bet this lady would have been impressed even if she had dropped in unannounced.
You are the "Presentation Lady". Could you come give my kids lessons on COMPANY rules. They think if someone comes over that they need to open the front livingroom into their three ring circus (Michael in sideways-saults, McKay on throwing the toys to make the loudest clatter and Ashton as the ring master aka - talking over whoever is talking as if they are applauding; Mark just hides until everyone is gone.)
Good job on the presentation, the inviting the spirit and the - as always, being really nice people who are extremely fun to be around. My boys still talk about you guys hanging out here and want to know when we're going to do that again!!! ;-) (You don't even need to be selling your house - just come over for a visit, stay for dinner and help clean up my disaster of a kitchen).
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