a beautiful mess

Life is messy.

This morning, in anticipation of a visit from a friend and her children, we (that is, I and the children under my command) scurried about making ready.

Sweep the floor.  Wash and cut vegetables for lunch.  Clean the sink.  Sweep the porch.  Take out trash.  Tidy up.  Shut the laundry room door!  Get out new chalk for the driveway, and bubbles.  Change Lil' Snip's shorts when he spilled bubbles on them, and wash off his legs.

Is it time yet?

Nice, who is just learning to tell time, informed me regularly of the clock's progress.  She was the one who noticed when the minute hand drifted significantly past the twelve.  (She was also the one - surprise, surprise - who invited Lil' Snip into the wading pool without my or anyone else's knowledge, as a result of which he fell down in the water and needed yet another pair of clean shorts, and a shirt to boot.)

They were late.  Hmmm, I tried to remember, does she often run a bit behind?  We only see them about once a year, so I gave her another fifteen minutes before I called.

"Hi!" she answered cheerily, "How are you?"

Somehow we had each chosen a different Monday to write down this reunion.  She felt badly:  she had been on the receiving end of just such a scheduling snafu the previous week, so she knew how disappointed we were.

Deflated, we put away our expectations for the morning.  I was, frankly, at a loss.  It seemed best to redeem the time by going ahead with the abandoned schoolwork, but I didn't have the heart.  The children wandered about aimlessly while I pondered our wasted efforts:  clean house, lunch prepared in advance, and no one to share it with!

"When life gives you lemons ....."

I called a good friend, who I didn't think would mind being plan B, and who just might be willing to toss out her own plans for the day to make room for an impromptu play date.

She didn't, she was, and over they came.  We had a ball:  they shared our lunch, and the clean house was soon full of toys again.  The mommies talked and the children played, and we'll see our other friends next week, after all.

The lemonade was sweet.  I'm so glad I knew the recipe.