Let's Get Real

There are a lot of moms out there who blog and have Pinterest-worthy homes.  I'm not one of them.  You could blame it on the fact that I have two toddlers, or the fact that I'm pregnant, or the fact that I spend a lot of time doing things like blogging or helping with church activities or singing in choir or...whatever!  But here's the truth...that's just me.  I didn't have a Pinterest-worthy home before I had children or a Pinterest-worthy dorm room or a Pinterest-worthy bedroom as a kid.  It's just not who I am.  I have to really WORK to keep things clean.  And honestly, I have many, many other things that I'd rather be doing and frankly, that are more important to me.

I also know that a lot of moms out there who don't blog look at some of those moms with Pinterest-worthy homes and are just in awe.  Now, I'm not saying that all bloggers hide their messes, many of them really ARE just that good!  But I know that I tend to take close-up pictures of things so that you all won't know what my house looks like!  

So today...I want to share some encouragement with all of you.  And I want to do it by letting you take a walk through my home.  So come join me as I share with you what my home looks like today and to be honest, probably most of the time.  I clean for company and I do try to get things picked up and cleaned once in a while, but more often than not, this is what's real.

Okay...do I really want to do this?  Deep breath.....  Come on in!  

Welcome to my front porch.  There's a pile of stuff on the left that is "outdoor stuff."  Then there's a stroller and bed rail, an old diaper bag, a cart cover and a sweater.  The bed rail is there because I bought it at a garage sale and it needs washed.  The rest was in the back of my van when a window got busted out (by a lawn mower shooting things...not someone trying to rob us!) and have little pieces of glass in them.  That'd be a good excuse if that hadn't happened...oh...a year or so ago.  The wagon is on the porch because there isn't room for it in the garage.  Then there's stuff on the bench to go to the thrift store, chairs that the girls brought out this morning, and a pumpkin in the process of becoming this week's Fabulous Fall Friday project.  Yes, it's a mess, and yes, I plan to get it all cleaned off.  It just hasn't happened yet.  

Next, step into my living room (which is actually not too bad today!)  There's mail on the piano, music on the bench...

The TV stand isn't gorgeous and there's a box of VHS tapes I'm trying to decide what to do with.  It's not terrible, just not perfect.  :)  

I'm proud to say, the couch has room to sit on it!!  This isn't always the case.  The green bag on the floor is my "purse" right now.  I'm in that stage where I don't really need a diaper bag, but I need something other than a tiny purse.  I don't have anything that fits the bill, so I'm using this bag.  Works fine for now!  

This is probably the messiest part of the living room.  Our "office" area went from having its own room to its own corner and it's hard to keep it looking nice.  

Or maybe this is the worst.  My pile of crochet materials on the couch, the chest in the corner piled with stuff (scanner--again, no office, games that actually go inside the chest, scriptures, baby monitor...), and the chair with Brian's laptop on it.  

Now we move on to my "Most Embarrassing Room".  The dining room.  I have TOO MUCH stuff in here that needs organizing!  The right side is full of party stuff.  The table is full of...other stuff.  I promise, I do clean it off enough each evening that my family of four can all sit at the table to eat.  :)

This is actually not too bad for my kitchen, believe it or not.  :)  

Confession: This suitcase sat in M's room for four months after we last went to the lake in May.  I finally emptied it and set it by the back door to go to the basement.  It never got taken down and now we're gearing up for another lake trip, so there it sits, ready to be packed.  The bag on top also needs to go to the basement.  Free fabric from freecycle!  :)  

Four bags in the hall.  Count them.  Four.  One from the zoo (needs washed due to bad bananas), one from another trip to the zoo (needs washed because H's milk spilled--YUCK!), one full of Brian's hunting gear (needs transferred back into the backpack where it belongs, and the diaper bag.  Yes...just call me the bag lady.

And what is that hanging out of the bathroom??  The hand towel.  ALWAYS.  I have no idea how, but the bathroom hand towel is ALWAYS on the floor!!  Drives me NUTS!  

And one final picture.  Our bathroom.  Jeans on the floor (because H. can't just pull them down, she has to remove them completely), towel on the floor, and trash full to overflowing.  

So moms, next time you look at what a blogger is doing and think, "Wow!!  What a great mom (or wife or grandma or woman), remember, you're seeing their close-up.  The pull-back shots may not be what you think.  And don't be discouraged!  Even if their pull-backs ARE Pinterest-perfect, that doesn't mean yours has to be.

We're all given different gifts and talents.  We all have different things to work on.  Housekeeping happens to be a "work-on" item for me and maybe it is for you too.  And that is okay.

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