to clean or not to clean, that is the question

Here's a brief conversation I had with Maria from Bored Mommy on Twitter last night,

This was all mostly in jest, but it did get me thinking. While it's true that my mother-in-law is a wonderful housekeeper, and it's true that she works like a slave whenever she comes, and it's DEFINITELY true that I love the help, I still wound up cleaning all night and trying frantically to catch up on the mountains of laundry that have piled up since our last two weekends have been so busy. 

The thing is, we only see Peter's parents once a year... and that's if we're super lucky, the stars align, a multitude of other random pieces fall into place, and finances allow. See, they live in Egypt.  While the internet and technology like Skype and Vonage have helped significantly in keeping us more involved in each other's lives, the times when we're actually together -same continent, same province, SAME CITY- are few and far between.

Those times are precious.

And so, while I have a list as long as my arm of things I'd love to have help with this week while my in-laws are here (and during the three weeks in June that my mom will be here! Woohoo!), I also really want my kids to have time with their grandparents. I don't want them to remember these rare times together as being always told "Later" or "Not now" or "We have work to do". I want them to have the chance to get to know the wonderful people that raised their -clearly wonderful- parents. *wink*

I also want my in-laws and my mom to be able to get to know my kids better. There's a small part of me that is terrified that my dear children are going to morph from their normal cherubic selves into some terrible little monsters while their grandparents are here. Okay, I know my kids aren't always angels, but I am anxious that my mom and Peter's parents get to see all the best of them... how sweet and funny and clever and loving and creative and helpful they can be. 

I hope that Liam does his school work well, happily showing his grandparents how much he's learned and how much he's capable of. I'm dreading the sometimes battles we have (over math especially)... this time with an audience.

I hope Simon will be his sweet, charming, comical self and not spend every waking moment whining to play Wii.

I hope Andrew will sleep through the night. Is that too much to ask??

I guess, since we see them so seldom, I'm just anxious that it be a special time. For our parents and our boys. Peter and I love and appreciate both our parents and our kids so much, we just want them to have the time to get to know and love and appreciate each other.

So if I have time today, I'll try to get a few posts written and scheduled, but no promises.

Since no post is complete without a picture, here's a mosaic from the few days we got to spend together last June. Look at how tiny Andrew was!