I just had to show you how organized and on top of things I am today.
Ta-da!
This is my outfit of the day to greet my visiting teachers (women from church who come and visit once a month). Isn’t it so lovely? My favorite part is the greasy hair pulled back in a ponytail.
I completely forgot they were coming. I remembered yesterday! I even thought, “Oh my visiting teachers will be coming tomorrow.” Then tomorrow came and I forgot. My house was messy and I was exercising when they knocked on the door. Yes, I was sweating. And they were standing there tempting me with a plate of peanut butter cookies with M&Ms in them. How mortifying, right?!
Thankfully they wanted to see some work we’ve been doing on our house so while I distracted them with that my kids – without being asked mind you – cleaned up the kitchen and living room so all looked presentable when we sat on the couches to visit.
My visiting teachers are such delightful women they didn’t even bat an eye or seem disgusted by my appearance. Bless them! We had a wonderful visit.
And I learned a valuable lesson. A couple of lessons, actually.
- Good friends don’t care what you look like or what you are wearing.
- Putting reminders in my phone or on my calendar will help me be better organized, especially if I remember to look at them.
- Teaching children to clean properly and fast can pay off!
Okay that was three lessons. I can count, I think. Now excuse me. I need to go figure out why the garbage disposal is stinking so bad. And then, I promise I will go take a shower!
Next Tuesday I will have a guest blogger helping answer some of your questions from last week. Stayed tune!
Cocoa- I must say that I loved this post! Oh my goodness! It really made me laugh! I haven’t been in the exact situation as you but definitely can relate! I remember one time when I was a foster parent with like 3 extra little ones running around besides my own, my husband used to “help” with the laundry by dumping all the dry laundry on the couch and leaving it there while the little ones were emptying my buffet lower drawers onto the dining room floor.. Then when someone popped in unexpected (sometimes the caseworker) – there it would be because I hadn’t had the time to deal with it. He is a pastor so once in a while people would just come over. They got used to the crazy pastor’s wife after a while. Oh yes- we homeschooled too!
Oh! Horror of horrors! You just look dreadful! NOT!!!!! Of all the people who would not even bat an eye, you have two of the best! You reminded me of the joke on the RS blog, that says “I get more cleaning done in the 10 minutes before my visiting teachers arrive then I do in a month!” Love those special kiddles of yours!
LOL I thought of that quote as this was going on only I changed it to, “My kids get more cleaning done in the 5 minutes after the visiting teachers come then I did in the 10 minutes before they came!”
I must say I kind of went visiting teaching like that today! Yoga pants, no make-up, and hair that could have used a shampoo! 🙂
I love real, genuine moments. It is when we let people see us in whatever state we are in that we somehow become closer, more real to each other. I know I feel much more comfortable with friends when I realize they have messes or days they don’t get around to getting dressed, too. That is when I feel like that are going to still like me in spite of my messes.
This is so true! Shortly after we moved here we were invited to eat dinner at someone’s house the next week after church. Only she had quite forgotten that she had invited us until we showed up at her door. Imagine trying to scramble around and fix dinner not only for your own family but a family of 8 (we had six kids at the time) too! And I was so relieved. At church she had appeared so intimidating and, well, perfect, that this experience broke the ice. We still laugh about it now 8 years later.
I like how you’re exercising in your flip flops! 🙂
Haha! I was actually exercising in my bare feet but put the flip flops on so I wouldn’t be bare foot while answering the door. So silly considering the way I was dressed anyway…like they would have added anything to my outfit. 🙂
Oh, I enjoyed this post:) My VT’s came today too and the kiddos and I used our 15 minutes well. Thank you for the reminder to “Keep it Real”.
I can totally see me doing this….in fact, it kind of happened once… I was laying in bed with a headache when …. knock knock…. it was a parent I had scheduled a homeschool evaluation for….ooops! Chaos ensued as I rushed to print out papers to do the evaluation…. pulled it together but, yes, I should look at that calendar once in awhile too! LOL
Question…. the ladies from church? They are all teachers??
Since our church believes in a lay ministry, eventually we all get a chance to be teachers. 🙂
Visiting Teaching is a program in our church where two women are assigned as partners called “visiting teachers” and are assigned several other women to visit them, call them, making sure their temporal and spiritual needs are met. It is a way for us to look out for, care for, and serve one another.
““God does notice us, and he watches over us. But it is usually through another person that he meets our needs. Therefore, it is vital that we serve each other in the kingdom.” ~Spencer W. Kimball
No matter where you go in the world you will find visiting teaching as a part of any LDS (Mormon) congregation whether it is the USA, Mexico, Africa, or Russia!
Typically when the visiting teachers visit (I am also a visiting teacher for 3 other women) we talk about the happenings in each other’s lives, they offer help if they see a need, and teach a short gospel lesson.