One of the comments after the last post mentioned how productive I’ve been. Let’s just keep it real for a moment. My house looks like this way too often:
And like this:
Sure, it often only takes a quick clean-up, maybe even just 15 minutes, to get it looking like this:
And then it’s that much more depressing when, less than 24 hours later, it looks like this again:
But that’s just ONE room. 15 minutes x ONE room = 15 minutes total. No big deal to do that daily.
However, 15 min x SIX (or more) rooms = 1 1/2 hours (or more) total! Suddenly, it’s not so “quick.”
Having a weekly cooking/cleaning exchange with Suzanne helps a lot!
So does having messes that clean themselves up.
Case in point, a while back I saw this mess:
...which grew legs and turned into this!
Yeah, that would be my teeny-tiny middle kid stuffed in there!
: )
P.S. In other news that makes me laugh: Last night, while The Man and I were watching TV, we saw a commercial for the new Glade plug-ins that expel fragrance only when someone is in the room, using some sort of motion sensors. His response: Wouldn’t tooty detectors be better?
A "motion sensor" plug-in would drive me crazy. It would be giving off fragrance every 5 seconds as my kids run by it ALL day long. Gggrrr!
ReplyDeleteYour pictures describe just how I feel and look so very familiar! How fun to "meet" another Karin in MN. So fun to look and see what you are doing :)
ReplyDeleteYes, but where are the squished Mac n Cheese bits that are mashed into the carpet, eh? Your carpet seems rather too clean, methinks. I love your kitchen - so much counter space! And what fun to see pictures of other children's toys! I haven't got the guts to take pictures of our house when it looks er.... lived-in. Shivers!
ReplyDeleteI did it...check out the "nursing cover" comment :)
ReplyDeleteJenny, you mean you don't want your living room smelling like every middle school dance I went to?!?
ReplyDeleteWelcome Karin! From Karin. : )
LiEr - oh, don't you worry! The mashed-in Mac-n-Cheese is right there, next to the dried out Cheerios and the shriveled green bean bits.
Yay, Sara! Nice to hear from you!
I love these pictures, Karin! They show what I love about you: "I'm too busy off doing something TRULY important, like creating beautiful crafts, constructing cereal box robots, loving on my kids, or bringing big rays of sunshine into my friends' lives to worry about this stupid ol' mess!"
ReplyDeleteI wasn't allowed to attend dances. Thanks for bringing up that old wound and pouring salt in it! :)
ReplyDeleteLOL, I bet the "dance" smell is similar to Carter's smell! :)
Great, what does that say about me, Dee? LOL, I care about that "stupid ol' mess"!
ReplyDeleteI think I'll go and create a life-size castle for Nora out of Duck Tape, now. :) See, I can be like Karin too. Although, I'll have to clean up my mess. :)
(Wow, I had tooooo much coffee this morning!! Can you tell? I need to remember that I am a pastor's wife....talking to an Elder's wife....DEE!!!) :)
You guys are so funny.
ReplyDeleteDee, you're describing the person i WANT to be. Instead, I shirk householding stuff because I'm selfish and "don't feel like it." You'd think I would've outgrown that ridiculously immature attitude by now, but no...
Jenny, yeah, I figured you might have to use your imagination about the dances -- but didn't realize it was such a sore point. Maybe for your next birthday, I could help Mark recreate the experience -- boys on one side of the room, girls on the other, cheesy 80s love songs playing in the background, oh and bangs to high heaven.
And seriously, I totally envy you who give your "stupid ol' mess" the attention it needs. I'm such a happier, more productive person when my surroundings are tidy and beautiful!
And I must say, I'm proud of myself for spending the last hour and half doing laundry and cleaning up the basement. Please keep rubbing off on me, Jenny and Dee!! (and you others... Sara... etc).
P.S. Jenny, how's the castle coming along? : )
ReplyDeleteJenny - don't feel insulted, I can't function in a mess either. I'm more than a little neurotic about my house being clean. That's why I appreciate laid-back people like Karin! YOU I appreciate because you understand my madness! :-)
ReplyDeleteAnd about the elder's wife/pastor's wife thing...OH, SHUT UP!! ;-)
(I can say those naughty words because my kids don't read this...don't tell them their mother has a potty mouth.)
oh, definately looks like my house on most days. it just amazes me that i can clean up a room and then in less than 5 minutes it can be dirty again!!
ReplyDeleteOK, the castle isn't coming along at all. I don't own Duct Tape (or is it Duck??). Although, I do own plenty of painter's tape!! We (or I) decided to make cookies instead!
ReplyDeleteDee,
Those are very strong words for an Elder's wife to be using! I might have to bring this up at our next annual meeting! :) See you all at Awana.
One more thing about any school dance...I really don't care (anymore) about the fact that I didn't get to attend them. My adult eyes and heart cannot imagine seeing my children at those events either. Do they really plan events like that for middle schools? Why? I just don't see the purpose of encouraging kids to act like adults. (Then, we expect them to deal with their feelings like an adult too.)This is a good blog debate topic. :) Hhhhhmmmm....
I forgot already what your blog is even about. WOW, we really got off the topic of your MESSY house! :)
Karin, thanks for sharing the pictures because I was beginning to avoid your blog--feeling very jealous and unproductive and boring and inferior creatively. I guess blogs can really become a comparison trap--of the blogs themselves and the personalities behind them. I need to see the warts. I guess I'm too much of a neat freak--makes it hard for me to get other projects done. I'm so afraid someone is going to stop in unexpectedly and see a mess--and oh my goodness--then they'd realize I'm not perfect!
ReplyDeleteHi again Kerri-- At first, I missed a few words while reading your note and instead read "it just amazes me that i can clean up a room ... in less than 5 minutes ..." and I thought I very well might have to unsubscribe from your blog! : ) But no, I caught ALL the words the second time and realized we're sisters in this after all. : )
ReplyDeleteJenny, the whole "making kids grow up too fast" is certainly worthy of its own blog post!!
Kristi -- welcome back!!
I think this issue of comparing could use its very own blog post too! I've been thinking for a while now that I could do "about me" post, but it would definitely need to include something that makes it very clear i'm not one of "those" women, no matter what people might think when they read my blog... not that "those women" even exist, but I sure feel like I'm not "measuring up" sometimes when I read OTHER people's blogs and I SO don't want that happening at mine!!
Well, I just assume that all of you are "normal" like me. :) We have our good days and our bad days. Isn't it great that we are all good at different things? I love the good mixture that we all make together. I am guessing that we all have secret messy drawers or closets. I am guessing that we all fall behind on the laundry. I am guessing that we all have cranky mommy days. Although, I also know that we ALL have talents that are beautiful in their own way. We also are all sisters in Christ. What is more beautiful than that?
ReplyDeleteAMEN, Jenny!
ReplyDeleteKristi - I so easily fall into the comparison trap! I go through way too much of life feeling like I just don't measure up to the women around me. Ironically, I think some people would probably say the same thing about me - that they feel like they somehow don't measure up. It's all such a lie! We ALL have cracks, warts, faults and downright failures...we've just become very adept at hiding them from each other. We have to remember that we're all on the same team! We're not competitors - we're all on the same journey to become more like Christ.
You know, house pictures aside, I've also been thinking very seriously about this whole blogpetitiveness that seems to arise no matter how hard people try to be real. I think it's a natural consequence of the blog world being so piecewise. I mean, we see parts of a person's life and never the whole. And even if some of those parts are wonderfully "real" and show our flaws, we still never know the full story, y'know? And I've found that behind the unfairly talented crafty facades on so many blogs are sweet, friendly, normal approachable people who are just as capable as their crafty handiwork suggests and just as human as it doesn't. People like you, sweet friend - and I bless the day our first email messages started. I've read so many blogs in which people's profiles describe them as "crafting to keep sane" and I've NEVER yet seen one that says, "crafting because I'm supertalented and everyone should aspire to be like me (UGH)" so like you said, clearly Supermom doesn't exist. If she does and we haven't met her yet, more power to her. I remember feeing really lousy when, years ago, I first met the Proverbs 31 lady. Martha Stewart has nothing on her! But now that I'm less insecure and silly (because my three children have effectively cured me of perfectionism) I realize she never once came across as holier-than-thou, or craftier-than-thou, or stays-up-later-than-thou. I'd rather be like her than any other bloggy person I know. But even her story is incomplete and we know very little of how fast she can do a day's worth of dishes or whether her homeschooled kids had better grade averages than, say, Miriam's from the next tent/hut/house.
ReplyDeleteEek - a diatribe! Sorry! Long live Real Bloggers!
thanks everyone for your continuing comments. it's so wonderful to hear your thoughts on this. and i hope others are enjoying them -- and the additional thoughts they provoke -- as much as I am.
ReplyDeletei've enjoyed reading everyones comments too! :)
ReplyDeletei think we are all human and easily compare. i know i do, but sometimes i think it would be fun to be a fly on the wall and then we would know that whoever we are thinking is so perfect really is like us after all. :)
oh, and about your comment about thinking that i have been quilting for so long. really, i don't give myself all the credit since i am a beginner. i think it is my sewing machine that is amazing. i got a new one right before i started to stipple and it is what makes it easy, not my talent. i wish i could take all the credit. :)