My real house.

This post is for my sister-in-law who can't imagine my house being messy, and for everyone else who wants to feel good about their "real" house. 

This is my living room right now: 

There are toys, roller skates, remote controls, blankets, kid furniture, kids dishes, and baby wipes on the floor.  You might also notice that Rylee is wearing a gallon ice cream pail on her head....that came from the kitchen.  Wyatt also had one on his head (he is the one who pulled all of my containers out of the cupboard minutes before this was taken), but his is now in the hallway.

In addition to the pail, there is also a puzzle piece and jello box on the hallway floor.  I have walked past both of the latter items about 5 times today and haven't bothered to pick them up.  I don't pick up toys all day, because if I did....well, I wouldn't have any reason to do squats as part of my work-out, and that would just be a shame. 

As Rylee no longer sleeps in her room (she sleeps in Wyatt's room...which now contains a full size mattress, a crib, a dresser, cube shelfs, and a rocking chair -- a mess in itself), I moved a bunch of their toys to her room to help contain the mess in the living room.  Here is what that room looks like right now:

Obviously, moving toys to another room didn't help the living room situation much.  Now they (mostly Wyatt), just drag shoes from the mudroom and dishes from the kitchen to the living room.  And, this happens too:

He also grabbed the mason jars from my Goodwill pile (which I clearly don't have in a good spot) and brought them to the living room....and then did this...

That's my couch and the jar WAS unused.

I used to tell my kids that they are the reason we can't have nice things and I would get really mad at them for making messes like this.  But recently I realized I AM the reason we can't have nice things.  I don't have the patience or willingness to keep food and drinks out of the living room.  It's only my own fault when these messes take place.

Luckily, vacuuming was on my list of things to do today....although before the crumbs happened I didn't actually plan to vacuum.  Here is the rest of my list that I wrote yesterday and still have yet to complete:

I did do the kids' laundry, but it's still sitting in the dryer.  I chose blogging over folding/hanging.  The rest of the list is still "to do". 

My kitchen actually looks decent at the moment.

But what you can't see is the piles of stuff that was all over the counter a couple of hours ago (which gave me inspiration for this post).  I had dirty dishes from breakfast, along with a bunch of containers the kids were playing with that needed to be rinsed since their germy hands touched them, a pile of clean dishes to put away, pans in the sink from last night's supper and this morning's breakfast, and Rylee's art stuff -- ALL OF IT!  As soon as I turned the t.v. off this morning, Rylee of course wanted to do an art project...I almost just turned the t.v. back on because I knew that her arts n crafts would mean more work for me.  There was also container lids and random shoes all over the floor.  In addition, there was cottage cheese smeared into the hardwood floor, because Rylee insisted we eat lunch on the floor today (can't argue with a 3 year old) and she's still messy.

So, there you go.  A glimpse at my house on a "normal" day.  I do prefer my house to be picked up, but most days I don't see any point in doing so until the kids are done playing for the day.  All of you mama's who pick up all day long....stop!  You're making me look bad!  Actually that's why I wanted to post this....

A friend mentioned that when you go to someone's house and it is clean and spotless every time, it makes you feel like a bad house keeper and maybe not as comfortable in their home.  This is the "every day" look at my house and I hope no one ever believes that my house is spotless all the time just because it appears that way when they enter.  I do like to have my house picked up and clean when guests come over not because I want them to think I'm super neat and clean all the time, but because I see it as a sign of respect for my guests. That being said, I wouldn't feel disrespected if I entered someone's home and it was messy -- especially if they have kids, because I totally understand that kind of mess. 

So, the moral of my story is...don't look at the dust in my house and I won't look at yours :)