Ending up with More Than You Started With: A Brief Dissertation on Having Company

This afternoon, as I scrubbed pen mark off the couches, did multiple loads of laundry, scrubbed dishes and floors, hand-vacuumed, moved furniture, vacuumed, looked ruefully at the bookshelf that is missing one shelf as a result of a "climbing accident," put crayons in high-up places, mused over the sweet message from my niece on my fridge, read the sweet letter from her parents (and savored the gift card to Coldstone they'd left us), saw with surprise and delight that they had replenished my milk supply, and finally put my own children down for naps, I pondered my 5-day experience hosting the Williams family. They are two adults, Matt and Jessica (Doug's sister) and their three children, Kate (5), Luke (3) and McKay (10 months). Jessica is among my faithful blog-readers, so I'm just letting you know I know she's reading. Hi, Jessica:). I think the experience went REALLY well, and I'd like to share some of the things we all did that helped us have a great time.

1) Each family had it's own floor; the nappers in the group all had their own rooms. I loved this and want to encourage future visitors to try this arrangement with us. It meant each family had its own bathroom and kids got to do their bedtime routines separately, which I think helped them get to sleep. It also helped us all get ready in the morning without feeling like we were stepping on each others' toes. Fans helped us feel like we were drowning out noise for the sleepers so we didn't have to be too quiet.

2) We spent very little money. Both families paid for groceries and we did a little shopping for Easter, but we never went out to eat or spent money on entertainment. Cool, huh? The kids played outside even though it was really cold and we went on a few walks. I went to Gold's Gym once, and Isaac and I supported Matt and Doug at a church basketball game. We did a few outings one day, but again spent little on anything other than groceries. I'm kind of surprised that we were able to do that. Good work, team.

3) The adults got to talk every night after we put kids down. That was awesome! Discussing the challenges we're having and the victories we've had helped us air out our ideas and understand each other better. For example, Doug learned that I'm fine with him fishing all day in Minnesota--I thought he knew that and he never suspected that was an option...and Doug and Matt realized that they both tend to serve as "ultra" protectors for our children. Matt suggests that he and Doug are the "super-dooper" model of male protectors, and Jess and I ought to be grateful we got the best models:).

4) I appreciated having my own private sanctuary and I wish Jess and Matt had that as well. My room was always clean, which was peaceful for me because the rest of the house had been hit by a cyclone of five kids five and under. Having a space that was orderly just soothed my soul. And I got a few naps in my own room, which was fantastic. Again, I wish Matt and Jess had that!

5) Our guests were just so gracious. Jessica helped me with meals, we all helped each others' kids, we shared the load with groceries, they let Doug and I sneak away for a date, and we all just enjoyed each other. I guess this tip is really that you ought to have great company come to stay.

To acknowledge the title of my post, I really do think we came away with more than we'd had before the visit--we knew each other better, I literally had fabulous left-overs, and I was glad we'd had the experience. What other tips do you have to help visits be a positive experience? We haven't had a ton of company since we got married, so I love learning what other people do and appreciate so we can become better hosts!