I have remnants of Halloween carnivaling and costume planning scattered here and there in the house. Putting things away doesn't seem to be anybody's strong point.
Then there has been operation fall harvest which involved apple picking, along with lots of unplanned plums getting picked. That means my kitchen has had a food dehydrator running every other day for a couple of weeks. I can't stand letting it run every day. The white noise apparently isn't my jam. Then I made crockpot applesauce while the dehydrator was running...bye bye counter space. Finally, today I said to myself, "Enough is enough!", and I finished off the beasties with 3 batchs of fruit rolls/leather and 5 pints of plum jam. All the apples and plums conquered at least. Yippee! I can reclaim my kitchen and my garage.
But then there is the problem of a 5 and 2 year old who think room cleaning might literally kill them but who have no problem dragging out ALL THE THINGS. I tried to take control of that this week but clearing about 75% of the toys out of their room and 99% of the books. We will see if they can handle their clothes and the few toys left, and then perhaps I will release the toys from the food/storage room back into the wild (of their bedroom) every so gradually. Whew!
And I have only really talked about the house. We won't delve into trying to balance church calling, each child's needs, a busy husband, school volunteering, work, and all the other tasks. Messy. I used to be early and on time everywhere, but with several personalities, none of which is very type A, to cater to as we go about our days, I have started to pitifully cram as much into every chunk of time that I can to get caught up on To-Do's which makes me a few minutes late to everything. If I had kids before I was married, I would have been late to my wedding...and honeymoon...
Don't get me wrong. I do love the reasons for the messes. My kids had a blast at that carnival, and I love taking them trick-or-treating. I'm a bit hard core. The apples and plums were so fun to pick, especially with Ja who can egg me on to do stuff I would not do if she wasn't there. And I love storing up food for my family to enjoy later. That's why Dad used to call me Domesticus! Our kids are blessed to have toys, and they have enjoyed all the ones I packed away at one time or another, and we are all blessed I have clothes because, well...we are all blessed...and to not have to wash by hand or hang on a clothesline in chilly weather.
It just gets messy, and the messy house is the part the gets to me most because I am here a lot, and if I'm in the wrong mood, the messes all over the house can seem like evidence that make me feel convicted of a crime. Not sure what. Failure to make a home completely pleasant and unsticky? Failure to notice a half eaten apple was left on the coffee table since last night? Maybe not punishable by jail time, but those things can make me feel quite guilty even if it isn't declared by a jury.
Messy, messy life. And here is my littlest (sometimes loveliest) mess-maker.
She is the main toy tornado, potty-training uh-ohs, crazy hair don't care, food everywhere person in my life. I know there must be opposition in all things, and so the opposite of DG orchestrating her crazy daily disasters would probably be the fact that my heart aches with love for her each morning when I get up. Her smile or goofy face or even her silly tantrums (#5 causes quite the different reaction in me that #1) just thrill me. We created this. God gave us this girl. My life may be as messy as they come, but there is a lot of beauty behind each and every single mess in it. True story.
