Whatever you do, don't open that door & other etiquette for a playdate

This post is dedicated to all my neat freak friends and relatives(you know who you are) and to my husband who wishes he married a neat freak;)
On the agenda for today was a playdate with a friend and her daughter that has been rescheduled a couple times due to sick kiddos...And said playdate was taking place at my house which means a frantic morning dedicated to making the house resemble any "normal" house that actually looks somewhat lived in and somewhat neat and clean and not like the usual state of disaster of my house.  While we do live out in the "country" compared to some of you city folk, there have been no twisters around here recently that I can blame the mess on- unless you count Sawyer and Jimmy.  Unfortunately for me, I am neither the "organized" one in the family nor the "neat" one.  And thanks to A.J.'s snarky comment last night that I should "definitely reschedule" the playdate because of how bad the house was looking(side note- we just got back from a trip and yes, there may be several items thrown around and a LOT of laundry piled up and spilling over from those piles), I was not feeling super confident that the house would get to any point near where it could be considered clean by the time our friends came over after Jimmy got out of preschool.  (Other side note, I went out with some girlfriends last night for a much needed dinner away and margarita which was most certainly preferable to cleaning.  And though I had visions of A.J. cleaning the house or at least the dishes in the sink before I got back, it didn't happen).  But then planning out my cleaning schedule in my head, it seemed possible that I might be able to pull it off- had exactly two and a half hours while Jimmy was at school to accomplish at least the main level- okay that means the main level minus two rooms whose doors would remain shut.    This was also allotting time for the interruptions of feeding the baby and keeping Sawyer entertained(hello "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse" on demand).  Then in A.J.'s evil plot to foil my good intentions, he left his cell phone at home and being that it is his lifeline, I knew what this meant- me making a side trip to drop the phone off at his office after taking Jimmy to school.  Well, there's one hour gone.  Okay back home, Sawyer and Bart unloaded from the Gray Goose.  Now to start...staring at dustbunnies around the living room under the couch and chairs because Bart has decided he's hungry.  Chat with my oldest sister who reminds me "if people are really your good friends, they won't care what your house looks like" though I imagine my sister is silently thinking to herself, "just take a match to that house!".  Baby fed, race to get the main priorities done- bathroom scrubbed down, trash emptied, beds made.  Miscellaneous dirty clothes from various parts of the house thrown into ever growing laundry pile in A.J.'s and my room.  Carefully push pile into room so the door can be completely shut. As I am doing this, I uncover the belt I had been looking for earlier this morning- score!  Shut Sawyer's door to conceal baskets of clean, yet unfolded laundry along with random boxes that need to be moved to the storage room once there is space in the storage room to do so.  Rush back and forth to basement to take toys down there to the play area.  Sawyer follows in the process, grabs one of Josie's doll strollers, fills it with toys and attempts to drag it up the stairs.  I unload the toys before he can drag the stroller any further up the stairs.  This unleashes the fury that is a Sawyer scorned.  Find a doll to appease him with and bring the stroller upstairs for him.  Start dusting a couple shelves in the living room and of course, Sawyer is fascinated by the duster brush so I let him "help" though I have to steer him away from wiping the now dust covered duster across the kitchen counter.  Drag out the vacuums- yes, there are two vacuums for our one small house(actually they are a set, one upright for regular floors and carpets, then one that you wear with a strap that sort of resembles a Ghostbusters pack for corners and furniture, etc).  I firmly believe that A.J. probably thought that if he made vacuuming fun to me, then it would happen more often.  Yeah right.  As I vacuum I think about a post from the blog Momastery on vacuuming(highly recommend reading it).  The writer and I would surely be close friends based on this one post alone.  Finish vacuuming, drop kick the doll(which Sawyer has now abandoned) to the basement a bit too vigorously and the damn doll knocks over a bunch of toys in the basement.   Stash vacuums away in one of the two closed rooms and load little things 1 &2 into the car to get Jimmy at preschool.
So to all my super neat, super organized friends and family: I admire your clean floors and spick and span houses. But I just get distracted by all the things I would rather be doing and will continue to figure out ways to make it "appear" that I have a moderately clean house.  And when you come over, whatever you do, don't open any closed doors.