Day #79 (A Royal Visit) (From Friday)

Ahhh, yes... a "royal" visit is due today. My darling (insert eyeroll) ex-husband is coming to visit. Oh joy! NOT! He decided that, since he was off this weekend and Julia was having issues with "Stalker Boy", he'd deem us worthy of a visit. Uggh.

A few words about my ex-husband: he's a control freak, he's hyper-critical, and usually is a general pain in the butt. There's also the issue of his previous lack of interest in visiting our children (he famously went TWO YEARS without seeing Julia & Frankie - on TWO separate occasions) and his lack of paying child support (but I'm really not going to go into this today - trust me, if I didn't love his parents and all they do for my daughters, I'd have his rear end parked in the Lake County jail.)

For once I actually felt ready for one of his visits. You see, he lives to find that one little speck of dust on a counter or a ripped corner of the newspaper sitting on a table, so he can say, "You missed a spot." He's an absolute slob himself but that doesn't matter to "His Royal Highness" - he doesn't have to be neat and organized, just you.

Thank you, Martha, for making me want to scrub the floors much more thoroughly (honestly, I didn't regularly vacuum the hardwood floors... ever... before this project), clean windows and mirrors every 2 or 3 days (instead of when the fingerprints started to annoy me), de-clog drains with baking soda and vinegar (well... that's more for my entertainment, but whatever, my drains run faster and smell better), etc. Because I've been doing this now for 79 days, I was actually able to take it easy today. The majority of the house was ready for royal inspection.

Since Amelia didn't have school, we were able to work in a trip to Giant Eagle, as well, for some last-minute groceries.

Yep, I was ready and when he showed up an HOUR early, I didn't freak out. I was ready! I think he was secretly annoyed that I wasn't frazzled and/or still cleaning when he arrived. Ha-ha!

Again, THANK YOU, MARTHA STEWART!

Mary