Keeping it Real Campaign 2009

So I was blog surfing yesterday and came across the Let's Get Real 2009: Perfect people lie Challenge. I found it refreshing and somewhat liberating, but I didn't know if I had the guts to do it! After thinking it over, a couple of things have convinced me to be brave and snap some pictures of my house in all it's natural glory.

1) Every time anyone comes to my house unannounced I find myself bumbling out disclaimers like "oh please excuse the mess, it's normally not like this..." who am I kidding? Of course it's normally like that. I have little children. Even if I followed them around cleaning 24/7 I don't think the whole thing could ever remain tidy for longer than 15 minutes. (unless I had them in straight jackets, but that's just wrong...) So yeah, I think step 1 is for me to stop the denial and accept that my house is a house that is lived in, and therefore, messy.

2) I was talking to my friend awhile back about "The blog induced depression" That one can go into after reading about other people's "perfect" lives. Well we ALL know that NOBODY'S perfect, so here's to a little bit of imperfection!

3) And finally, I read this quote off another friend's blog who accepted the challenge and it just really hit home to me. She said, "I'm learning that I'm only going to be in this stage of my life once...and then it's going to be gone & if i don't make the most of it & try to enjoy each day...messy house or not...I'll look back and regret it...everything turns out to be okay. eventually things get put away (it may be days later), but it all gets done, eventually!"

So without further ado, I bring you, My house.

First stop is my living room. That's Teya on the couch plugged into some cartoons. Yes, I let my child watch a full length cartoon every day while Brinley naps because dog gone it! I need some quiet time too! On the floor is an empty puffs can, wipes from changing Brinley's diaper, Brinley's clothes that I stripped off her before putting her down for a nap, and a freshly drained bottle that I gave her to help her sleep because I am a soft bellied sucker who doesn't have the heart to wean her from the bottle even though she's almost 14 months old.

Next is a close up of the TV stand. Why are there 7 DVD's out of their cases? No wonder Teya's cartoons always skip...And maybe someday I'll think of a better place to keep my hand weights, but today is not that day.

Here's a closer look at our table. Ramen noodles stuck to the table top. Teya's slimy frog to accompany her for lunch. And toy shelves in my dining room because let's face it, that's where all the toys end up anyway!
Let's visit the kitchen shall we? More bottles. I really need to buckle down on the bottle weaning. I will say that the sink actually looks pretty good! (it should considering that I am constantly loading and unloading the dishwasher all day long)

Kitchen counter with a can of Slim Fast, a tribute to my futile attempts to break up with junk food. At least I'm trying...What else? Wipes, baby shoes, my purse, and the mail. Sometimes my counter doubles as a desk, but more often it's just my catch all when I walk in the door.

Here's my "desk" (a.k.a. cheap card table with all our electronic junk thrown on top) I see snacks, my empty bowl from lunch (blogging makes me hungry) the diaper bag, oh and that's a little egg timer by the computer because I'm trying this new thing where I limit my computer time. (As I've already spent an hour on this post I will say that the egg timer isn't working...yet...)

Heading upstairs (brace yourselves, it's about to get scary!) but first, the stairs themselves. Laundry that I need to take up, a bag of stinky old rags, and notice the lovely crayon markings on the wall. Thank you Brinley.

At the top of the stairs is my room. I'm only posting this little corner because you can only be so brave... Bed isn't made, my jeans never made it to the hamper, more wipes and clothes from one of Brinley's many spontaneous diaper changes. Monty's dog food bowl that he drags in our room to eat and his special monkey Zander.

Our loft. Uh... yeah. I think I pulled all that camping stuff out 2 weeks ago to make room in the guestroom for my parents. Then I just left it there because we're going camping this weekend. I guess at the time I thought, "why put it away when I'm gonna use it again in three weeks?"

And since I won't post pics of the bathrooms or my closets of shame, I give you my own crowning jewel, Teya and Brinley's room. No need to describe the beauty you see here. Although I would like to point out the lovely Dora blanket that I draped over the window to block out the light when they sleep. Someday I'll put in curtains, but once again, today is not that day.



Whew! Well it feels good to have that off my chest. Try it if your feeling brave. It's pretty liberating. Also I would like to apologize to my Mom. I know you raised me better than this, but really Mom, we can't all be superhuman cleaners like you! : ) And now I bid you farewell, I think I have a house that needs to be cleaned!