Time to be *REAL*

This post is to encourage all of the other struggling moms out there!  Blogging can make anyone's life look "perfect".  Blogging only the good can make us appear as if we have it all together.  The truth is, life, in general, is messy.  Granted there are those out there that do have their acts together....in *certain* areas, but let's face it...we are all sinners, making messes of our lives as we go.  I am no exception!  This being a journal of sorts, I try to keep things real, but I obviously want to remember the *good* times, more than the bad.  So posting more of the good makes it on here more often :-)

Yesterday things really just got out of hand.  We have been off schedule now for a while.  We have been mostly back on over the past few weeks, but if something hits home, well all bets are off.  BUT, this is a reminder (mostly to my children) why we have a schedule!  Even without our schedule we have been doing most of our schooling, and having at least one, if not two, chore times a day.  BUT, come the weekend, which follows after a busy week....Well, let's just say my house is a wreck.  Make that with a capitol "W"!  Scratch that, make it ALL caps....WRECK!

Knowing that we have to get our house in shape for the holidays AND for the coming baby, and a wee bit of 'nesting' sweeping over me....I kind of lost it the other day.  So with some "before" pictures, a plan, and a sit down pow wow, I am hoping we will be in tip top shape by the end of the week.

I am going to show you my 'before' pictures.  I put that in quotes because no matter how I post the pictures, it is embarrassing.  So I 'posterized' most of the photos so that you can get the feel of what I see, without all the little details.  Hey, I am human :-)  On top of the messes you see I am about to rip up my carpet.  I can. not. stand. it. one. day. longer!  But, apparently I can, as it's been a few days as it is, but our carpet is soooo totaled, and having just the sub floors would be an improvement.  However, I am waiting until a better solution comes up before going a little floor stripping happy :-)

Without further ado, our messy lives (Don't say I didn't warn you, and don't say I never get real ;-))

Lovely walls.  We have a few patchy areas around the house in various states of repair.  This one was a *huge* hole.  Jeremiah was trying to bring something down from the attic, and fell into the wall.  Yikes.  Other holes were made from door knobs.  Some of those little 'door stopper' thingies have fallen off, and when they do, and we don't catch it....we get lovely holes.  Thankfully there are only two of those, but still, they 'add' to the landscape.

Shoe rack anyone?  We have been in serious need of a shoe rack, since we moved here, but seems to be last on the priority list.  I have someone organize the shoes, almost weekly, but this is what happens when life gets busy.  (The broken castle toy just adds to the ambiance, don't you think?)

 A collective picture of my kitchen....which is 'totaled'.  We have already made huge headway in there, so don't worry, it didn't stay like this for long!

 A view into the laundry area...you know the one, where NO laundry is supposed to be left there?  Yeah, that's the one.

 Are my children the only ones who put books away in such an orderly fashion?  NOTE, this is only one shelf, and actually all the other shelves *are* orderly.  Again, I'm just showing the reality of our life (at times), and I am thankful that only one shelf is not in order...the exception to that is:

 Our school shelf, mid school year, always needs sprucing up!

 This is the boys' toy shelf.  It is *supposed* to have baskets all filled with their toys, each basket being a certain type of toy.  Notice there are no baskets here.  Want to guess where all those baskets and toys are?

 I think I may be going with the unfolded, by type, baskets for laundry for little boys.  I can't imagine it can be worse than this!

 The girls are supposed to pick up their bedrooms daily.  Doesn't look like that has happened in a while!

 Their wall only adds to that 'chaotic' feeling.  I suppose it really works, if you were going for that look!  I'm all for hanging up your drawings, but we need to find a better solution!

 Maybe the girls need the 'no-fold laundry baskets' as well?

 We do lot's of arts and crafts around here, but when the messes get left out?  Oy!

 For that really chaotic mess, one must have cheap, broken down furniture to throw in the mix.  I know many, many people can make their house look lovely with thrifted items...but it takes some work.  And, if I may say so, a woman's touch?  Both (the work, and the woman's touch) have been absent.  I try to tell myself life it too short to fuss about lousy furnishings.  Most of the time it works :-)  And don't get me wrong, we have many *NICE* things around here as well!!!  I'm just picking on the 'yucky' parts of my house right now!

 And, lest you think I am picking on my children with their messy rooms....this is MY room.  My dresser top isn't any prettier than theirs!  Aubrey spilled out a file folder (hence the papers), and I have two 50# bags of food ready to be put into buckets, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

 Now, before anyone wants to call DSS, or intervene :-)  Let me say a few things:  1. This is NOT our regular looking house.  Granted, even when we are all tidied up you will know first thing upon entering my house that I am NOT Martha Stewart.  But, that being said, our schedule allows us to have our fun, AND have a clean house.  I am showing you what happens after we have been sick, off schedule, having two very busy weeks in a row, AND the stress of this weekend (details coming soon).  This is not our "normal looking" house.  2. Please note that I am only showing you the worst areas of the house.  The floors of my living room, family room, kitchen and bathroom do NOT look like what you see in the above pictures (they are clear and picked up!).  And, you can be sure there are clean areas in the above rooms, I just snapped pictures of the bad parts. 3. The above picture are the lists for each room of the house (the bedrooms got one sheet for all of them), and what needs to be done for our "spring" cleaning.  So there is a plan to get back in the game.  4. We started this weekend with the lists and are making progress, and I will have AFTER pictures to be sure :-)  When I was taking pictures of the messes, Saoirse was following me around, wondering what I was doing.  She finally asked me.  I told her I was taking pictures of our messes.  And she asked, "Will you take after pictures?"  I said, "I very well HOPE SO!!!"  Ha! ha!  But I assure you there will be after ones coming, probably after Thanksgiving.  Everyone has really been helping, even the boys!  They LOVE taking things out of the cabinets for us to clean up and reorganize.  And, in the past, it has always been 'just me' doing the spring cleaning.  Let me tell you...it goes much faster with many hands!!

And, just so we have a little bit of beauty in this messy post, here is a paper flower creation made by Saoirse.  Granted I am sure she probably left her mess somewhere...BUT we did get these lovely flowers to enjoy :-)