neat as a pin or not?

We walk around the block most evenings, often stopping in at Mom and Dad's to porch sit for a spell.

Thursday night after leaving Mom and Dad's we continued on our way and met up with another couple - they live two doors down from us. We talked and walked. When we got to their house, we talked some more and as the guys discussed cars and garages, she invited me into their home.

Simply beautiful. Not a piece of paper or a book or a magazine on any flat surface. No shoes by the door, no clutter anywhere. It looked like a model home.

That is so not me. I greatly admire people who can keep their homes like that, but I don't manage to emulate them.

Here is what I came home to:
his and her pairs of shoes by the door
four ears of corn and a couple of bowls of tomatoes from the garden on the kitchen counter as well as a loaf of zucchini bread
a bucket of apples from the neighbor on the kitchen floor
strips of fabric on the guest bed - I'm making a lap quilt for a friend who was recently diagnosed with cancer and has just begun chemo
the ironing board set up next to the sewing machine so I can press as I sew
the days mail on the kitchen table awaiting filing or pitching
music books open on the clavinova..
and so on.

But I always make our bed! Our home is clean, just not necessarily neat.

My neighbor works full time and they go out to eat several times a week.

Not so here. Both of us here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. My home is my work place. Sewing, crafting, cooking, baking, preserving and making music.

It really isn't super messy, just busy.

I find it to be a comfortable jumble of things I enjoy. Pat seems to agree (aren't I lucky?).

And I hope that if you stopped by, you would feel a warm welcome, no matter how many projects I have going.

How 'bout you? Are you a neat as a pin homemaker or do you have a lot of things going on at once?