No Room in The Inn

Things have been a bit crazy 'round here over the past few days, y'all. As I mentioned, Jason's parents, the lovely Mike and Jan were here for a visit. (They flew home this morning.) And on Thursday, we welcomed a group of 8 women from our old church in Dallas. They've come for about a week to help us with some projects for the church and to attend a big women's conference that's happening in Sydney.

So is anybody good at math? 'Cause that means that over the past few days, we've had 12 adults and 2 children in our house. And that would be our all-time guest record. Do we live here?

No. (The Jolie-Pitts invited us, but we had stuff to do.) So how have we done it? Break it down for me, fellas:
Guest Room: In-Laws
Office: 3 girls
Small Pseudo Guest Room: 3 girls
Ava's Room: 2 girls
Our room: Us and Ava
Nate's room: Just Nate, such a prima donna. (what's the male version? primo dono?)

The house we're renting is not ginormous, but it is large. And I believe that optimistic real estate agents would call it "quirky" or "filled with character". It's older, and strangely laid-out, with no central air or heating. But doggone it, it's got lotsa places for sleeping bodies! When we moved in 2 years ago, we wondered why we were getting a house with so much space. Now we know why. We are often seen as somewhat of an anomaly by our friends, because it seems that we nearly always have someone staying with us. Sometimes they're overseas visitors or people we've invited to come speak at church, other times they're friends who need a transitional place to stay. But for us, it's more rare to not have a houseguest.

Probably cause I'm the perfect hostess.


I make sure to have a fresh supply of towels ironed everyday, and warm, baked canapes just coming out of the oven. I also knit monogrammed scarves for all our guests.

Umm, no. (What are canapes, anyway?)In fact, our guests always say they feel right at home with us. I'm pretty sure that's a nice way of saying that we make them get their own breakfast and help load the dishwasher. All I know is that Jason told me before we got married that he wanted our home to be open to people to stay in when they needed to. And I was all, "Why do you have to be so Jesus-y all the time?" (I've mentioned before that he is the nicer one, haven't I? It's true.)

So, as a result--of my amazing husband and our guest rooms--we have lots of guests! I suppose it also doesn't hurt that we live in one of the world's most beautiful cities. Friends sometimes tell me that they don't think they could live comfortably among people they don't know so well. This isn't usually a problem for us. After a few years, I've learned to just do my own thing. Of course, we make sure our guests have what they need, but if I wanna sneak off to my room at 8:00pm with a bowl of ice cream and watch dvd's on the laptop, I do.

And the truth is, we really enjoy it. Nothing bonds you to someone like sharing a house with them, and our circle of friends has grown dramatically over the last few years.

Right now, the sun is setting and I'm enjoying the last few moments of quiet before the girls come home after a day's worth of helping refurbish our church offices. It's humbling that they would come so far to lend us a hand. I'll enjoy hearing about their day, then I plan to grab the Ipod and go on a walk before dark. So, no canapes tonight! In fact, I think they're making dinner.