Hey y’all. Day 26, can’t believe we are still keeping up. Makes for some hectic mornings and sometimes evenings but it is helping me to be mindful of what we are savoring of home lately. Previously I was just feeling a bit foggy and tired from projects. I think the blogging this month is helping me regroup a bit and realize how thankful we are for this home.

Today it’s all about sprucing this place up. Toilet cleaning, laundry washing, treat baking, and other such things. Why you say? My dear friend Annie is popping in for a couple of days. And when it comes to cleaning for the sake of friends coming I kind of like it. I have let the house go quite a bit these days with distraction of bigger projects but I like getting back to the details and readying for time with a friend.  She arrives Saturday and we are hoping to sneak in some fun times outside before the storm comes and once it comes we are praying we keep power so that we aren’t sitting around a candle, singing kumbaya (sp?) and eating tuna out of a can. The great thing is though, if I was to be stuck in a home without power with my family and a house guest, she is the one I would pick!  She is one of those sister friends I have described before. She knows us well and we consider her family. So we have big fun plans but we also know that even if we are just together that will be enough to fill us up. Just hope Seth and the boys can tolerate the non-stop chatting for 72 hours straight…okay, okay we will take a break to sleep. But during waking hours we will might just be non-stop. I haven’t seen Annie since she and a posse of teenage girls came to Switzerland to see us!

Annie will be our first house guest in this home. I have to admit that the perfectionist in me feels a bit insecure that things aren’t quite done yet. We still have a few doors without handles, one random wall remains unpainted and the list goes on. I can see every single unfinished thing like a magnified glass is pointed at each of them. But the thing about having a home that is open to friends is that it doesn’t have to be perfect, it needs only be all that you have to offer. Back to the cleaning and sprucing! And reminding myself that it does not need to be perfect as I prepare! I am going to attempt these Whole wheat Apple Crisp muffins from Dwell on Joy if you need an idea for your weekend baking!!  I’ll be back on here this weekend to share Annie’s house with you.

And completely not on the topic of home, Owen and I are taking a little break from our cleaning to meet Seth for lunch today. He happens to be working from the Foreign Service Institute today which is right around the corner from a little Colombian restaurant. I am so looking forward to some ajiaco and arepas!  It’s so strange, we have so many great memories of friends and experiences from our time in Bogota but there were some intense family times there too. Like Jackson’s cancer diagnosis. Such bittersweet times to remember.  We will be thinking of our Bogota “family” while we have lunch today!