Why does it take hosting a major event to get your house in order?

The fun and games are over ladies.  I start back to work in 24 days and the thought of it makes me want to cry!  ;)  It has been a wonderful summer here and we have accomplished quite a bit.  I have also made sure to have lots of fun with the boys.


We are hosting a family reunion for my hubby's family as well as his parents' 50th wedding anniversary party.  We will have *GASP* twelve houseguests for six days (as well as five others that will be joining us for meals, but staying in a hotel). Lucky them! ;)  There will be between 40-50 people for a casual Friday night gathering and then the party on Saturday.  The chorus that keeps running through my brain right now is Y'all gon' make me lose my mind up in HERE, up in here.   Hosting this event is definitely stressing me out at this point.  It's hard because this is my husband's family and he has three sisters, so even though the events are at our house, they are helping to plan them long distance.  I have no doubt I could totally pull this off on my own (and it might be easier than getting so many different ideas), but I am walking a fine line here.  Needless to say, the next week as we get ready for all of this is going to be a ton of work.  The good news is that our house will look better than it ever has by the time we are ready.


Some major things we have done:
~Painted the den
~Bought new couches for the living room and den
~Bought new decor for the console in the foyer
~Bought new bedding for our oldest ds's room (he really needed it)
~Organized the boys' bedrooms and closets (God Bless Greg he did this)
~Organized the basement (well Greg and Drew did this, I don't do basements ;))
~The cleaning lady came Thurs so the house is clean and she will be back the day before everyone arrives


Work in progress:
~Paint touch ups
~Grocery shopping and menu planning for the meals and party
~Organizing the kitchen pantry- I have been doing that today and it's been SO not fun! ;)
~Organizing all kitchen drawers
~Getting all laundry done and prior to guests arriving


What we plan on still doing:
~Buying a new blender (ours broke)
~Buying some new pillows for the boys' rooms
~Buying new fingertip towels for the powder room
~Changing the bedding in Drew's room back to PB football
~Painting oldest ds's bedroom
~I am negotiating getting the other two boys' bedrooms painted because they desperately need it.  They still have the craptastic flat builder's beige paint that shows EVERYTHING!
~Organizing the clutter corner of the master bedroom
~Organizing the master closet
~Organizing the office
~Iron and put back up the shower curtain in the boys bathroom
~Put up the valence in the boys' bathroom
~Frame the adorable prints for the boys' bathroom that I got YEARS ago.  
~A ton of baking before people get here and a MAJOR Sam's club run for food.


Things that I wanted done that just are not gonna happen:
~Painting the white doors on the main level
~Painting the white trim on the main level
~Painting the master bathroom
~Painting the powder room (this actually has been painted, but I would like to choose a color instead of beige)
~Curtains for the living room and den
~New office furniture and painting that room (that seems to be at the bottom of the priority list).




I have been taking photos of some of my decorating/organizing projects and promise to post them sometime soon.