Messes

It struck me recently that though I take a lot of pictures of my kids and their faces, I don't often take ones of the other realities of our life.  A huge reality around here is all of the many messes that I deal with day after day.  I am easily overwhelmed and often discouraged at all the time I spend cleaning and picking up but rarely feel like there is anything to show for it.  Steve has often reminded me that all of the messes and the work they involve represent the richness of our life together.  I appreciate his perspective and wish I could carry that more in my day to day.


This morning I grabbed my camera and took a few shots of the "everyday" around here.

Legos.  My new friend/foe.

Dishes.  Constant.

Shoes that never quite seen to make it into the box that they are supposed to.

This is the cleanup job of a 3 and 5 year old.  At least the books are on the shelf!!  Sort of.

After telling Aaron to clean up his legos, this was how he sorted them.  A cleaned up pile, a pile that he was going to play with later, and a pile that he wanted me to clean up.  Hmmm??

The constant stack on school books by my computer that need to be checked and corrected.

Steps that are full of things to be delivered to upstairs bedrooms

A happy boy who just couldn't stay out of the picture

Girls who just can't seem to keep their space clean.  You should see the look on my mom's face when she sees their room messy.  Sheer joy.  She seems to think it is some sort of pay back from years ago.  I would guess she is correct that I was not the neatest kid on the block.

Trying to teach Aaron to put away his laundry results in clothes that don't quite fit into the drawers.