There is no after picture because this is just what our house looks like now.
There’s a stack of Paw Patrol and Curious George books on the coffee table next to my Beatles coffee table book and decorative white coral. There’s a car seat next to our accent chair. There’s Kinetic sand and monster trucks on our kitchen table. We now have an entire shelving unit dedicated to toy storage… in our living room. This entire paragraph is full of things I thought would never happen.
We’re in survival mode. A three-year-old and a 7-month-old have taken over our house. I used to let it bother me that we were constantly in a state of mess. (It still does, sometimes.) But, honestly, why should I waste energy on keeping the house spotless when I need that energy for more important things. Like keeping the children fed, and bathed, and clothed. And, it’s easier to keep them clothed when there’s laundry strewn about the house.
There’s one of those phrase signs that you see on Pinterest all the time that sums this time in our lives up perfectly, “Excuse the mess, the children are making memories.” Even though I actually hate those signs, mainly because they always use a font that looks too much like Comic Sans (#GraphicDesignerProbs), that one really describes how I want our house to feel. Our kids don’t realize that when they are pulling out their favorite books for bedtime, or building Lego castles for Hulk to knock down, they are actually making a mess that makes mom cringe. They’re just trying to make memories and be kids.
Another phrase you hear too much of when you become a parent, “It won’t be like this forever.” I think you hear it so much because it’s true. I won’t always have to pick up bath toys from the tub before I take a shower or remove the toddler potty chair from the toilet seat. And, while it’s very hard to enjoy doing those things in the moment, I’m sure I’ll miss those extra steps soon enough. Because, you know that stuff taking over your living room, and kitchen, and bathroom? The toys, books, the tiny shoes, and hair bows, and crumbs? When that stuff is gone, so are the tiny hands and eyes and hearts that put that stuff there in the first place.
Our lives don’t have to be perfect Instagram squares.
You want to know how those Instagrammers with the perfectly clean living rooms do it? They don’t. They have a pile of laundry, and toys, and tiny shoes pushed just outside of the frame. So, go live your life and make some memories. And, speed clean the house 15 minutes before company comes over like the rest of us.
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