My Mom gave me a book titled "Motherhood is Not for Sissies" before Camden was born. Its a simple book that has black and white photographs of mothers, babies and older children alongside humorous yet true quotes about being a mother.
This book has set on our bookshelf for the last two and a half years and has only been glanced through a few times. Camden routinely empties the book shelf and yesterday, when he did, he brought me this book. He likes looking at the pictures of the babies and comments about what they are doing in the pictures.
One of the quotes jumped out at me when flipping through the book with him. "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."
I have always been some what of a neat freak and want everything to have a place. Although, I'm finding that quote to be more and more true as I walk through the house to pick up toys for the 10th time today, vacuum the floors and find them covered with crumbs within hours, find the trashcans to be full again, and fold all the clean laundry only to discover two baskets full of dirty clothes that need to be washed.
I never truly feel like my house is clean but I have come to terms with the fact that my house will never look like a picture in Better Homes and Gardens. I don't think "real" people live like that. There are usually dishes in the sink, laundry that needs to be put away and toys strewn across the living room. Cleaning the house with a two and a half year old running around while almost nine months pregnant has to be just like shoveling the sidewalk while its still snowing. Not that I would know anything about shoveling snow...especially in Houston, but I definitely understand the metaphor.
You know once this is posted I'm going to go clean right???
This book has set on our bookshelf for the last two and a half years and has only been glanced through a few times. Camden routinely empties the book shelf and yesterday, when he did, he brought me this book. He likes looking at the pictures of the babies and comments about what they are doing in the pictures.
One of the quotes jumped out at me when flipping through the book with him. "Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing."
I have always been some what of a neat freak and want everything to have a place. Although, I'm finding that quote to be more and more true as I walk through the house to pick up toys for the 10th time today, vacuum the floors and find them covered with crumbs within hours, find the trashcans to be full again, and fold all the clean laundry only to discover two baskets full of dirty clothes that need to be washed.
I never truly feel like my house is clean but I have come to terms with the fact that my house will never look like a picture in Better Homes and Gardens. I don't think "real" people live like that. There are usually dishes in the sink, laundry that needs to be put away and toys strewn across the living room. Cleaning the house with a two and a half year old running around while almost nine months pregnant has to be just like shoveling the sidewalk while its still snowing. Not that I would know anything about shoveling snow...especially in Houston, but I definitely understand the metaphor.
You know once this is posted I'm going to go clean right???
2 comments:
Very well said! I am nearly constantly worrying about all the housework I need to do. I like to keep a clean, neat, relatively clutter-free house, but it is impossible. Most days I try to hit the big spots and realize that the world will keep turning even if the trash is full and the spare bedroom is being taken over by all our clean clothes. It is nice to hear someone else feels the same!
omg do we live in the same house?! I could have written this post, espeically the part of the bookshelves being empties, and here I was thinking it was just a phase.. only I just have a 11 month old and I'm NOT pregnant!
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