Messy Mondays: My Room

My room is a mess, it has clothes I bought that need to be tried on and returned, stuffed animals carried in from little ones, books piled up on most surfaces, shoes and bags that haven't been unpacked after returning from vacation one week ago.

It is the last room on my list to clean up. My husband appreciates when it is the first and so I have been trying to put things away at night or after they are used. But, sometimes our plans don't work. Sometimes the mess is all the other rooms is so vast that we choose the rooms we live in most. Walking around the downstairs of our house I am overwhelmed by how the blankets, books, dolls, socks, Lego, dishes...are so misplaced. Where does the chaos come from? By Sunday night I feel like I will not be able to dig us out.

Our feelings convince us of dramatic ideas don't they? These same feelings creep in and ruin days or evenings with my family because I want them to get out of the way and let me pick up. I want them to stop playing, stop putting on costumes, stop drawing because I want everything to look like a Real Simple feature article. These feelings are destructive. They prevent me from creating peace and order, something I believe I should create as a homemaker. I instead am a hurricane leaving ignored people in my path who feel unloved or not heard.

So today, I cleared out one corner and moved my sofa into that corner to look out a very big window with the mess behind me! I thought and wrote and dreamed and I ignored the mess for 2 hours. Slowing down helps us see more clearly, it helps us see through the mess to who created it.
Often, in our house it is destructive boys. But, it is also a mom who read that stack of books cuddled in bed with three kids, a husband who took off his work shoes to come play his kids after a long day, a boy who brought all his stuffed animals into the room to tell us each one's name! The mess has beauty if we can slow down enough to see it!

Follow me on Instagram @currywinters with #MessyMondays and show me the beauty in the mess of life. You aren't alone in the chaos of kids or the mundane routine of picking up!