The Daily Hailey

You know how its so hard to do all those dirty, time consuming though small jobs throughout your house? Perhaps you, like me, avoid them like the plague. However, they make you angry every time you see them. Whether you have a good excuse not to do them, like me (having a baby puts lame jobs on the back burner) or you have zero excuse, or you actually do them, I think we can all agree that we’d rather be doing something (anything) else.

My mother in law is visiting. Hi Elvira! She came out to meet her latest grandchild, visit Brady and I, get in a bunch of playtime with Dekker, and to WORK! But new baby or not, we did everything in our power to prepare for her visit and get the house ready for a visitor. We’ve kept our house pretty together since right before Laela was born, so the only real tasks we’ve been maintaining are the dishes and laundry. We were confident there wasn’t much to do. However, I gave Elvira full run of the house to do any chores she could really find. Without pointing out any flaws or making me feel embarrassed, she did all the jobs that I truly, truly hate. Without even knowing I hated them that much!! She dusted, and dusted, and dusted. Shelves, table tops, light fixtures. She washed the fronts of our cabinets and appliances. She even cleaned the inside of the cabinet under the sink that holds our garbage can. That was the job on my mind as I typed earlier about the jobs that make you angry when you see them. SUCH a relief. Likely the dirtiest place in my house. Wait, I take it back. That was the microwave, which she cleaned as well. I can’t remember the last time I wiped out my microwave. It may have been in the year 20-never…

She ran around my house, cleaned,did dishes, locked herself outside once, and did lots of other things. We even sat together and organized all the gift bags and tissue paper piling up on a table in our dining room. While it was nice to see the big mess of love and support in the way of gifts, it was a huge mess, only getting bigger. My house was in decent shape before her arrival, but it is looking pretty mighty fine now.

Aside from all the cleaning, we had a nice quiet day together. Brady had to work so Dekker hung out with the ladies all day, which I’m pretty sure he quite enjoyed. Tomorrow Brady will be home again with all of us for Elvira’s last day of visiting. We’ll quite miss having her around. Dekker has warmed up to her very sweetly, and Laela is full of smiles for her already! Sure guys, tell me that reaction smiles don’t happy yet, but they do. Just once in a while, but they do. My little darling daughter is so pleasant 🙂 I wish you could all meet her at this stage!

It is evening. We’ve all gone our separate ways for the night so Dekker is sleeping, Elvira is probably reading, and we’re up with Laela, running a tub. I feel so very blessed to be where I am with the people I am with. God is good.