Not more than one hour after I posted yesterday, I got a call from our realtor.
"Um. Joy? How are you with short notice?"
"How short?" I asked.
"We have some people who want to come see the house between 5 and 6pm tonight."
I glanced at the clock. It is 4pm. Gives me an hour to get the house ready and us out. Seemed doable since the kids had taken long naps and not gotten much out.
"I can do that. Wow. I am so excited someone wants to come over already!"
"Do you want me to try to push back to 5:30?"
That sounded like a good idea. "Sure. Thanks!"
I had one and a half hours to get ready. Surely that would be enough time. I began the routine: put dishes away, put toys away, make beds, stash fans, deal with the clean laundry on my bed.
Oh crap. We still had two places to touch up with paint!
I tell myself to remain calm, do everything else first, then Anna showed up, begging for who-knows-what, bawling, snuffling, screaming, wailing, following me everywhere I went. She only got more upset when I asked what was wrong. My stress level was at the boiling point when the phone rang. They had to postpone one day because the guy had to work overtime at the last minute.
Serves me right. Serves me right for letting my stress show so much that Anna picked up on it and started a vicious cycle. Serves me right for procrastinating and not thinking we'd have anyone coming the first day we list the house.
But I was totally relieved at the same time. I had two bins and that laundry basket of papers that I had NO ROOM for anywhere, not even in my van! This bought me time to finish all the little things, find homes for all the bins, and prep the house more calmly.
