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Bunny, Leo the bunny, started off today munching away on his shoe box from Kara. This particular brand of cardboard must be especially tasty. He's been working on it diligently.
I love watching Leo eat. Sometimes, I'll lay down by his crate while he's whittling down his vittles. His jaws and whiskers move in a figure 8 the entire time. He perks up when he hears me open the spinach bag, then he'll snatch the tasty greens away from me before I can finish handing him his food.
Kris made Tuscan chicken tonight for our dinner with my brother and his fiancee. As with most cooking here, it became a never-the-same-twice version, but this chicken is basically made by panfrying chicken in hot oil, adding paprika, garlic, and salt, then finishing it off with parmesan cheese and heavy whipping cream. All that makes a delicious sauce when it's cooked.
We served it with buttered noodles and a tossed salad. It was plate-licking good, but we did the polite version of that by scraping up every last bit with our forks.
What do you do when the house needs a general tidying and cleaning, but you only have a short time before company comes? Well, I can't say what you do, but I can tell you what I do.
Don't panic: just choose what is most important.
For me, I think of what company sees and smells right off the bat and address that. In our house, it means lighting a scented candle sometime between sweeping the floor of the main level and straightening the living room.
Then I move on to the bathroom. No way am I going to let a guest use a dirty bathroom.
After that is the kitchen. I load the dishwasher, or otherwise take care of any dishes that are out, then I wipe the counters and empty the trash if it's full.
That does it!
If I still have some time, I'll go fiddle with other rooms and surfaces just to make sure everything is in order, but at least the main area is nice and neat.
I say all this as if my family is nowhere to be found and cannot help by reason of their absence. They usually are nowhere to be found when I start a hurry-up cleanup.
Tracking down and forcing out help from able-bodied, unwilling family members takes twice as long as if I just do it. So, there are times I just do it and let them scatter.
It's funny how they scatter as soon as the broom comes out.
But (blush, blush) I remember doing the exact same thing when I was their age. Sorry, Mom!
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