We both laughed. She said, "Well, I don't have little hands tearing apart what I put up. No one here to mess up what I clean up!"
And it really made me think.
The chaos. The mess. The "zoo-like" noises my mother always remarks about while talking on the phone. The little people.
I don't want to downgrade how hard this time in my life is, but I also want to remember that one day I will be preparing for my children to arrive for six weeks. Someday my house will be quiet and clean. Someday I will be wishing for the sounds of little feet. I will be sadly remembering all the food that used to be dropped under their seats as I clean the table of two plates.
And that is why I don't want to wish away the chaos, the mess, the zoo-like noises, and the little people. I want to embrace it and gather it all into the recesses of my mind. I want to have easy access to those memories.
Easier said than done, of course.
When life and chaos and noise gets me down.
When I am on my hands and knees cleaning up dropped food.
When they push every button I have and every button their siblings have.
So, here is to the reality. Soak it up, Kelly. Embrace it. Someday you will clean your house and it will stay clean...and you will probably shed a tear because of it.
Enjoy the memories of a home dirty with love and chaos...beautiful, zoo-like chaos -
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| The leftovers from what was supposed to be a "clean" attempt at a toddler activity. And yes, every home we have had in the last three years has had carpeted dining rooms. Nice. |
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| The pile outside our daughter's room. Every night after she goes to bed, I clean up the house and don't dare open her door to put away stuff, so the pile grows...until the morning, when inevitably, I forget to put it away, and it gets thrown all over the house again to be cleaned up the next night. Every.Single.Time. |
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| The rug that drives me bonkers, because every.single.time I put it down flat, one of the boys plays "caterpillar in chrysalis" and rolls up inside it to turn into a butterfly. Yes, they really do that. Every.Single.Time. |
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| The never-ending piles of laundry. Most are folded, and just not put away. Here, you see clothes folded into a kids toy box, because every other clothes basket in the house is full of clean folded clothes... |
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| The kitchen taken over by drying cloth diapers and random toys the kids drag in - including pot lids that they turn upside down and make into carousels. Every.Single.Time. |
