Category: life

Every so often I’ll notice that the house has gone quiet and I’ll wonder what my kids are up to. The other day I came upon this sweet scene and was able to grab my camera and snap a quick picture. One of the biggest challenges I find in being home with my children, at least while they are  young, is getting things done around the house and still being present to play with them or observe moments like this. Laundry is always needing to be done, food prep or clean up, and just general day-to-day chores. 

It should be noted, as I type this that Maggie has put on her tap shoes and is tap dancing to some loud music blasting from her toy. Audrey is ‘hiding’ in the closet next to Maggie and yelling for us to find her. It’s opposite of the serene picture with this post. 

And I’m pretty sure there’s now a poopy diaper to change….

I have an incredibly half-written, long-winded post/rant about not feeling organized and explaining why things in my house (life?) don’t match. And then I came across this picture of Audrey:

Obviously she can’t dress herself and there’s a lot going on with that outfit, but I found it a fitting metaphor for how I’m feeling. Although I’d probably use a label maker to organize my things, I care much more about living a simple life, with less stuff, than having everything ‘organized’ in matching bins. Barry and I were once told that we ‘over-donate’ things and it’s true. We constantly are dropping things off at the thrift stores near our house, but we’re also walking through to pick up new-to-us stuff just as often. We’re in constant flux and sometimes, when I compare myself to other people, in this case a blog on organization, I tend to be a Debbie Downer.

I tend vacillate between wanting to have a crafty corner with all my wrapping paper and ribbon perfectly displayed and living on the road in an RV looking out on the water with not a roll of wrapping paper or ribbon in sight. My way of compromising this conflict right now is the small container of wrapping paper and ribbon in my garage and some fake-camping trips making promises from my calendar.

We are organized in our own way. Clothing bins, camping bins, seasonal crap bins, blah, blah, blah. I accidentally went into a black hole (aren’t those fake now?) via the internet and got a bee in my bonnet about things I could be doing better or am not doing good enough and it felt really horrible. It’s true. I like order or, more specifically, organized chaos. When things are too neat, or too perfectly perfect, I feel out of place. At first I thought that I just can’t win…too messy or too organized. What’s the middle ground? I guess I’m the middle ground, along with the little hush puppies that are my children.

For the Fourth of July this year we met up with some of our friends at a cabin that Joey’s family is in the middle of renovating. The cabin, which will one day not be under construction, was right on the beach and boasted the most stunning view. Maggie, being four, doesn’t care about spectacular views and later asked us if we were ever going to go back to the ‘dirty, old cabin,’  which we found to be very funny. 

It was a great day, even if a bit rainy, to spend with our friends that we don’t get to see as often as we’d like. Tyler, Kurt and Jeff dropped crap pots in the water, but we left when they were out picking them up. We timed our departure perfectly and watched all the fireworks on the way home, Maggie commentating from the back seat and Audrey sawing logs. 

I can’t wait to go back to the DOC (dirty, old cabin) and see what improvements have been made and spend time with our peeps.