Belinda started a discussion on Facebook the other day about the reality of homes with people, you know, actually living in them.  I had already taken these photographs and had a blog post in the works so it was a natural fit for me to go ahead and write it.  We have 4 kids in our home.  All. Day. Long.  We home-school, so there are 3 kids who eat 3 meals a day here.  Every day of the week.  The baby does not make a mess yet…he’s only 8 weeks old.  So you add that up.  Just in kids that is 9 plates, 9 cups, 9 pieces of silverware….at a minimum.  Not to mention my husband and I.  We strive to eat a family dinner every night.  Anyways, between home-school, laundry, meals, and creating family moments, cleaning can take a backseat all the time at times.

Don’t let this fool you.  This table is clean by default.  We do school on it and since we always eat here it has to stay clean.  Look closely and will likely find some red sharpie marker stains.  And just around the corner….

And the laundry.  Oh the never ending laundry.  My nemesis.

And several of us love to read, but apparently NONE of us can put our books away properly.

And dishes air drying.

And there you have it.  An honest look at our home… at least when you stop by unexpectedly.  And I will tell ya, it is hard to take these photos.  I had to resist the temptation to clean it first.

 

Ok, Belinda here.  I decided I’d join Kristen and get real too.  Like her, I had to resist the urge to clean before taking pictures.  But then I remembered the point of this post.  Nobody’s perfect and I think we as moms tend to be too hard on ourselves.  I think we tend to strive so hard to look like we have it all together because if we let people see the truth, they might judge us.  I have to remind myself that a true friend won’t think less of me because my counters are cluttered, or the floor needs to be mopped.  A true friend will ignore the piles of laundry and doesn’t mind stepping over toys.  Truth is, my house does get cluttered.  Dishes don’t always get done right away.  My windows haven’t been washed in months.  My bathrooms desperately need a good deep cleaning (esp with 5 boys who can’t seem to aim!).   But at then end of the day, my kids are cared for and loved.  A family LIVES here.  So with that being said, here are some pics from my house today.  And I will even admit that some days are worse ( I was able to make my bed today!).  I hate having cluttered counters but with 6 kids, it’s inevitable.  Between mail, school papers and projects, cups that seem to appear out of nowhere and belong to “noboby”, keys, and misc. stuff, I can’t keep them clear for more than 10 minutes.

Dishes from dinner last night and from baking valentine brownies for 2 classes that frankly I was just too tired to deal with at 9:00 pm.

My room. Two piles of sorted laundry on the floor and 3 loads waiting to be sorted on the bed.  And there was another load in the dryer.  It never ends around here!  Hard to tell in the pic but my carpet really needs vacuuming and my dresser and nightstands need to be dusted.  One of the boys left his latest book on our floor along with a blanket they dragged in with them at 5am.  You can’t see it but my dresser is also piled with school papers, items to review, and a couple of mystery cups.

Our entryway drive me crazy!!  Most days, I have to climb over the mountain of backpacks, coats and hats.  Bring on spring!!  We have hooks but no one can ever seem to actually hang their coats up.

So there’s just a small peak at our house on a normal day.  Would I like to have a spotless house?  Yes.  But life happens. And that’s okay.

So what about you?  Do you have a pinterest worthy home or does it look like ours?

 

Filed under: Family Life, Home and Garden