Messes are Opportunities...

Messes are opportunities for creative expression, for delight and discovery, and for pleasure and celebration. Messes are real. They are how we live. And they can be beautiful.

- Amy George Rush -

This quote fits motherhood so very well. Most days, I walk around in a trance wondering how my house got so messy. Or how the floor is so freaking dirty even though I mopped it 6 minutes ago. Or why there is SO much laundry to fold. 

Then I see how dirty the door handle on the fridge is, and that my child has cut her own hair...and barbies hair, too. I discover water all over the bathroom floor because the boy was filling up water balloons. I look around and see the toys, the dirty cereal bowls, a spit up stain on the floor, coffee spilled in the kitchen, coloring pages all over the kitchen table. 

There is a shark in the kitchen. Barbie is in the toy oven. There's a penguin in the couch cushions. I found a toy car in my coffee. There is marker all over the toddler. Someone sprayed the new TV with a quirt bottle and ruined it.

So on and so forth.

I remember the very first time my Daddy came to see our house when we first moved in, right before Isaiah was born. There was stuff everywhere. It was a disaster. The bed wasn't made, the dishes were not done, there was laundry everywhere, and I needed to vacuum. I apologized for the mess and he says "It's not messy...it's just lived in."

Yes...very very very lived in. 

Without these tiny humans, these beautiful children of mine...none of this would be possible. 

The humor (because if you don't laugh, you will indeed cry) that surrounds my every day life is so overwhelming. So I smile (most of the time...sometimes I cry instead) and ask myself questions like "Why is barbie in the oven...bald? It's like toy story all over again." There are no answers except that these tiny humans are learning to be people. They are growing and changing every day. So very quickly that it takes my breath away if I think about it too much. 

And that, my dear friends, the growing up of children, is so very messy. And therefore; one of the most beautiful happenings of all. 

Now, lets see if I can remember this while scrubbing the poop stains out of the carpet...