When company comes over– aka we live here

If you come over to our house to share a meal, you will be able to share what I planned for our family’s meal—not a fancy creation for which I scoured some elaborate entertaining cookbook.  If there’s more than one of ya’ll, you may be asked to bring a salad, bread, dessert or libations—we have two grocery stores near our house if you need to stop there.  My young child will sit at the table with us, because this is how one learns table manners and how to interact politely with strangers.  And if you stay long enough, you will be able to change your table manners and conversation after those young ears and absorbent mind go to bed.  You are more than welcome at my house, but we live here.
I might have vacuumed and I did make sure that everyone’s socks are out of the living room.  I probably folded the afghan and draped it over the back of the couch.  But I did not erase all signs of our life.  You will not see my living room photographed for House Beautiful.  I live in a rental apartment, so we will not be featured in Dwell for our chic and environmentally-friendly design concepts—though you may note that we use eco-friendly dish soap, because we will not stop you from helping with the dinner dishes if you insist.  You will also not have to worry about spilling your drink on the designer furniture or getting fingerprints on the fine artwork.  We live here, and as our guest, we expect you to settle in and act like you live here, too.
If the weather is nice, we may sit out on the balcony and enjoy watching the sunset over the city skyline, and then you may notice my husband’s bicycle—our ‘other car.’
If you need to use the bathroom, you will see what kind of toothpaste we use.  You can explore our books and see my husband’s entire record collection.  He’ll even take your requests if you see something there you’d like to hear. 
You can see that my desk is cluttered, much like my mind, but at least you know it’s being used.

We are not shy or embarrassed about our home, as we are not shy or embarrassed about ourselves.   This is who we are, and we live here.