Humble Pie II

Nope, not enough said!!!

1. I have the gift of hospitality. (You know, the one where you enjoy having people into your home making them feel welcome and cared for, the one where you love throwing parties, the one where you "host" events just because, the one where you take pride in the smooth operation of your home...) Sigh.
Since moving into our house here I haven't been able to host or entertain as much. I miss that. And, since I haven't been able to entertain as often, I have taken much more stock in tying my self worth to the condition and state of my home. Additionally, the phase of life we are in with small children just doesn't combine well with entertaining in a small space. Little kids are all over the place! Don't get me wrong. We still have people over, but it has to be on a very small scale.

I think I've done pretty well accepting the fact that we live in a fixer upper, and I'm not ashamed of it. In a lot of ways, I'm proud of it. We are choosing to do something that most people don't! I like to show the progress that we are making to others. And I am always eager to start the next project!

Before Felicity arrived, things were absolutely running SO smoothly in relation to the tidiness of my home. (Thanks, Flylady. I miss you!) But SINCE her arrival I have done little more than...well, feed her and manage to take a shower every day or two. Things have been kept relatively tidy MOST of the time, but on any day that requires errands you can just forget it!! Yesterday and today have been those days. And this is my house as a result. UGH!

Yesterday, while I was feeding the baby, the kids went out to play in the backyard. They had a GREAT time emptying out the big gray toy bin that had filled up to the brim with rain. They threw every toy out...literally. I sat and watched Celeste randomly throw them around. And, of course, they did this so they could play in the rain water. I let them because they were entertained and I needed that while I fed Felicity!

Commence picture two. We temporarily have two carpet pieces cut to fit our back landing to keep the dirt from tracking in to the house. The wind likes to whip it up occasionally, and I haven't flipped it back down yet. More hysterically, are the shoes and clothes piled up right in front of the door. Consequently, when I had finished nursing the baby, the kids were soaked through and through. I had to shuffle them through undressing and leaving wet clothes to get dry ones while holding a fussy baby and then commence dinner prep.
See, there is the big grey toy bucket completely void of all toys, and still toting some water. And, here is the pool that decided to sag on one side and collect lots of rain water and twigs from the recent storm. It wouldn't be so bad if only ONE of these things were occurring in isolation. We certainly have that happen a lot. You know, A PAIR of pants and shoes on the back landing with a sparkly pool and picked up yard, or A toy bin of toys scattered with a clean landing...It's the combo of all of these things combined that is making it so horrific in my mind!!
To make matters worse, this past weekend Caleb and I worked to switch out our wardrobes from Fall/Winter to Spring/Summer. This is a large overhaul since we only have space in our closets for the current season. I stashed maternity clothes that need to be returned to friends in the crib in the nursery. I need Caleb to dig the bin out of the garage for me to load them up. Once again, not a big deal...two neatly folded piles of maternity clothes in the crib in a CLEAN nursery didn't look so bad.

Commence next picture. This room functions as the kids playroom and well, they had obviously been playing before drop off at preschool this morning....then off to a doctor's appointment, then straight to Caleb's work for National Day of Prayer, then to lunch with Caleb, then to pick up, and then FINALLY back home...where I continued feeding and tending the baby until company arrived to bring us dinner! Poor Felicity has been a little cranky today because she got a shot earlier this morning. Boo.
And this is just the rest of the mess the kids have managed to make...in addition to some of the kids winter clothes that have been folded up but still need to be stored. The open drawers a killin' me. Seriously!