Sad, but true

Had the loveliest dinner out on the deck this evening. The weather has been so great, we have eaten out there almost every night this week. OK- the truth is, the dining room table is more cluttered that the recipe for a church potluck salad, with game boy cartridges, sunscreen, handouts from VBS, markers, hair pretties, and probably even crushed up ramen noodles, just like the real thing, and I am so wiped out from having recently gone back to work, that rather than clean it off so we can eat in the dining room, we've been dining AL fresco instead.

OK- so it is true that I recently returned to work, but the other truth is that the condition of my dining room table and countless other areas of my house is like this regardless of my schedule, unless of course I realize someone is coming over, in which case this ordinarily laid back mama suddenly begins freaking out, barking orders at every able bodied family member to pick up their socks, Polly pockets, chess pieces, fruit roll-up wrappers etc off of the living room floor so I can vacuum. Then, I have the audacity to react with surprised annoyance when the kids ask me who is coming over, as if that is the only time we clean (it pretty much is).