For Sale

 

Last summer while driving home from Idaho, the kids watched a movie called Deep Impact.  I only listened sporadically from the front seat of the car, but there was this one scene that grabbed me.  I could relate to the intensity and stress as a team of astronauts tried to divert a meteor from hitting earth with only minutes to finish the task before the sun came over the horizon and fried them all.  I interrupted the movie to announce, “This is exactly how I feel every time we have to clean the house for a showing.”  I have to write this post to document, lest I forget, how much I dislike the process of selling a house. 

Tonight I got a call from our realtor telling me that I need to get our house ready to show tomorrow for the bazillionth time.  I know exactly how my morning will go.  I will have to forgo running because I will need every spare moment to clean.  I will panic.  I will fill my laundry basket with school papers, wet towels, shoes, dirty laundry, dirty dishes, you name it, and run it out to my car.   I will clean every square inch of my house.  I will run around like a crazy person and no matter when I start, I will spend the last 30 minutes completing jobs that would normally take me a full day.  Amazingly enough, with only minutes to spare, the clock will slow down, and I will recognize that my prayers are being answered and that our house will be ready in time (or a few minutes after).  And I will realize that it’s OK that I missed my run because I’ve just gotten a better workout cleaning.   And I will be dripping in sweat to prove it.  And, one minute before (or after) the realtor and clients pull in the driveway, I will run out the front door with someone’s dirty socks stuffed in my purse.  And I will smile at the realtor like my house always looks this clean and it was no big deal to get it this way.  And then, in a few days, I will do it all over again.