Sometimes I feel like I'm treading water. My legs are moving and moving but I'm not getting anywhere. Okay, it's really not that bad - after all, we are home together as a family most week nights so we have it better than a lot of our friends do. But, with Julia in Kindergarten and the home business going well, I feel like there's a lot to keep up with. Packing lunch for Julia, remembering dates/deadlines for her papers, reminding her to do homework, teaching both girls the value of money (and chores/jobs), helping Rebecca keep up, living life with a puppy in the house, sanitizing toys, doing crafts/activities, laundry, dishes, groceries, .....groan.... there's so much to do every single day!
But, we manage to have fun in the process. You'd think that me working from home and us having so much evening free time that our house would be orderly and somewhat clean. But, you'd think wrong. My house is embarrassing. I have clients that come through here every day, and whenever one of the parents comes all the way inside, I cringe. Will they notice the clutter that used to be my desk? Will they see the ant traps on the kitchen counter? Will they notice that I haven't vaccuumed the stairs in decades? Will they *gasp* ask the use my bathroom? Does the house smell? Is it dirtier than the average house on the block?
Seriously. These things stress me out. I'm home 24/7 so I never get to see the outdoors (except, ya know, my weedy backyard filled with broken toys and sagging trees... do the parents notice those things, too?). The daily state of my house is ... blahhh. Or at least, I think it is? Imagine my relief if only I knew that the clutter, the dog hair, the random toys is sort of... normal.
But, geez. That's not even what this post was going to be about. I intended to write about how much we love life. You see - the state of the house really does stress me out and worry me. But, not enough to make me do anything about it! Because during our free time, we're ... ya know... free!! And we're relaxing! And we're playing Candyland for the gazillionth time. And we're singing karaoke with the wii. (andmaybewearehavinghomemademargaritas) And we're watching Mythbusters thanks to Netflix. And we're wrestling with the dog. Or out at the park. Or shopping! We're too busy to care that the things that should be... could be... cleaned up and organized and made right again are completely and totally neglected during those moments in the evening or on the weekends when we actually have time to PLAY.
It's the small things that make me smile. Like when Rich agrees to Boogie and belts out, "you can hang out with all the boyzzzzz... at the YMCA!" Or like when Julia draws the ugliest butterfly ever on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Or like when Rebecca says something crazy like "I wanna be a daddy when I grow up! I wanna have a beard I can shave!"
Yeah - those small things. That's life, right? Not a clean, orderly desk. Or an empty dryer. Just the smiles, the joy, the togetherness. But, maybe I'd enjoy those things even more if I didn't have a small heart attack whenever anybody comes by unexpectedly?
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