The Joys of Being Home

“Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing.” - Phyllis Diller

    I think I appreciate this quote more because of my experiences living where it snows a lot more frequently and heavily than what I grew up with. The effort of shoveling snow or cleaning the house is something I consider at some times to be pointless. When it snows here, I always have a mental debate with myself, trying to decide at what point I should actually go out and shovel that white stuff. Wait until it's done snowing? Get a head start? Shovel a path now? Shovel the whole walk? It is definitely the same quandary I have over cleaning house with three little ones constantly in motion.
    We have taken quite a few trips this summer, and I've decided to just laugh at how my kids settle back into home. I try my hardest to leave a clean house. Toys put away, laundry done, floors clean, etc., but it never fails that once we get back home all that work will be completely undone in a matter of minutes. I'm not kidding. It's like Christmas and birthdays all wrapped up into one moment-- the moment they walk through the door. Toys, dressup, cars, clothes, bedding, it's like they've never seen them before and it's  all new and wonderful. At one point, I used to feel that my time cleaning was wasted. Now it's just funny. It is more joyful to see them excited to be home and enjoying the blessings of our home. It will be clean again. I'm just not sure when.

Caelan loves to take all the clothes out of the dress up bins and her dresser.

Oh, Barbie... why do you come with so much stuff?

One car for each of my cuties. Notice even the curtains at the window in the back have been tampered with. The couch has green marker and Boudreaux's Butt paste on it (another very good story).

And the floor is sticky.

The Dragon and the Frog responsible for the fun. ;)

Oh, and it appears that I need to finish painting. Hmmm, maybe after I get it all put back together?