no small miracle

I've often wondered why it is no one can visit my house when it's clean.  My house is frequently, even mostly, clean.  But whenever someone stops by unexpectedly, it's a disaster.  There is always a pile of dirty diapers to greet them at the front door, toys and cereal strewn on the carpet, and something has inevitably just died in the garbage can.  If they venture past the front door, and then past the living room, they'll find lunch still on the table, last nights dinner remnants still under and around the highchair, and a sink full of dirty dishes.  Oh, and did I mention the smell radiating from the garbage can?  But the funniest thing is, if they just would have come the day before, or even a few hours before, the house would have been clean.  No dishes, toys put away, floor swept, no gross garbage smell.  What gives?  Am I the only one?  Does Murphy just hate me?

But last night a miracle occurred.  M and I were sitting down eating dinner (the dad was still at school, lame) when I heard some talking just past our back fence.  And then I heard a chain saw.  So I looked out and saw that our amazing (not even being sarcastic, he really is amazing) landlord and his wife had come to trim the trees in our backyard.  After dinner we went out to say hi and he mentioned that the water needed to be turned off.  If it wasn't a bad time for him, I told him it was fine for him to do it then.  After the tree trimmer (or butchering, really, but that's another story) he came in to the house just as we were leaving.  Toys put away, floor vacuumed earlier that day, the only smell to greet him was from dinner.  No dishes in the sink, no ancient meals under the high chair.  And it wasn't even sprint cleaning because I knew he was there.  He just came when the house was clean.  You may be laughing, but really, that's no small miracle.