When I started homeschooling I was like a lot of housewives. I prided myself on my clean and orderly home. Clutter was kept to a minimum and cleaning was scheduled regularly. Okay maybe I had aspirations of living in one of those glossy magazine images. But when you have kids and definitely when you are busily homeschooling cleaning can take a back seat to enjoying the fullness of life. So as time passed I struggled on letting go of the immaculate counter tops, sparkling clean floors, and neatly put away laundry. Then it occurred to me. Do these things really matter. You may have noticed as I have that dishes are always seemingly dirty, there's an endless line of laundry in the tub, and food is always being consumed leaving crumb trails here and there. So I could succumb to the insanity I was feeling over my glossy magazine dream slipping away or I could accept this new normal. Acceptance doesn't come easily for this perfectionist. It's something I regularly struggle with. My house isn't magazine perfect but when I asked the kids if they noticed the HUGE mess we had in our livingroom one day and they replied that 'No, it's just our cozy home.' It hit me like a tonne of bricks. Kids do not care if they have picture perfect homes. It's the love between the walls that matter. Of course I am not going to slip into complete slobdom. However choosing to let small irksome messes not be irksome but rather viewing them as messy perfection. The perfection lying in the fact that it's orderly in it's disorder rather than immaculate. Cleaning will always need doing and it's evidence of having lived so embrace it.
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