Monday, October 12, 2009

I get it now.

I get it. I understand what my mom always said about feeling perpetually behind.

I just can't do everything and be caught up on everything.

Toilets get dirty right after I clean them. Laundry is always being made. The floor never stays crumb or dirt free. Food gets eaten. The garbage overflows.

I'm fighting a battle that never ends. There isn't a cease fire. There is no time out. There is no break.

When I sit down, the cheerios don't get picked up, the toys don't get put away, the laundry doesn't get switched from the washer to the dryer and folded.

I have things that I need to get done that aren't on my weekly to do list like switch the boys' clothes out. This is no small task. It requires a lot of piles. And a baby that doesn't crawl over to those piles and pull them all apart. And it would be helpful to not have Sage around either. He remembers his clothes and wants to wear them. Kolby is just happy to have clothes that fit. He usually keeps exclaiming "Age?!" (Kolby speak for Sage).

I kid you not, he wore a pair of size 4 pajamas to bed last night. The pants hit right below his knees and the sleeves right below his elbows. And they were flannel. For the overnight low of 65.

So imagine a lot of piles, that get unfolded and dragged around the room, a 5 year old who wears a size 6 putting on a lot of size 4 clothing and Kolby watching it all unfold. Pun intended.

Every weekend I have the same conversation with Drew. I don't know how other mothers do it. Our house is a constant disaster, laundry barely gets folded usually to sit on the ground outside the appointed room for a couple of days before it actually makes it into drawers, there is a constant crumb trail on the floor, and nothing ever seems to make it back to its place.

I have a mess of homeschool stuff that doesn't have a home that I use everyday.

And I rarely get enough time to recharge my battery. Know what I mean?

I'm not trying to complain. I'm just trying to express where I'm at in life.

Buried.

13 comments:

  1. I am right there with you!

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  2. I am a little afraid what the move to 3 kids is going to do to me. :) Especially since I'm someone who really gets stressed out about mess and being behind on laundry and that kind of thing. So how about you go ahead and figure out a perfect home organization strategy for when the kids outnumber the parents, and then tell me about it?

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  3. I'm a friend of Karoline's - I met you at her wedding - but that feels like about a lifetime ago. :) I enjoy reading your blog! Glad to know someone else has a crazy life too. I would offer some wise words of encouragement, except I'm exactly where you are right now. "Hang in there" is all I've got. :)

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  4. I just wanted to say, "Amen!" and we don't all do it. Sometimes I think we would do ourselves a favor if we actually let other people see our houses they way they usually are. People rarely see my house a disaster, but it is one 95% of the time. I always feel behind and frequently feel overwhelmed. I hate cleaning. The only part of the stay at home mom part that I like is getting to be with Micah. All the other stuff I could seriously do without.

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  5. Well mama...we are all right there with you. No one has a perfectly clean/organized home and if they do, they probably have it at the cost of enjoying their children. We can't have it ALL, like the world would like us to think. We can only do our best and pray everyday that God shows us which tasks He wants us to accomplish for His glory. What if that means ignoring your toilet with that scary orange scum at the top of the water line? What if?

    The point is, I wish I could spend more time enjoying where God has me (even if it's buried at the bottom of a monster pile of dishes) than being so frustrated. I suffer from the same 24/7 cycle of craziness you do.

    BUT, some encouragement, I feel like it has definitely gotten easier the past year and a half. Caleb is now 7 and do sooo much to help me out. Aiden just turned 5 and really wants to do what Caleb does (BONUS!!) Ethan, well, I guess you can't win them all ;)

    Love you and I pray that the next time you start to get frustrated with all of the Cheerios on your kitchen floor...you can grab one out of the box and flick it on the floor next to the others...and then laugh about it! They will be gone before we know it...**sniff.**

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  6. I just walked in the house from bunco, saw the mess everywhere, and almost cried. I had already cleaned and picked up everything once today, but Curt doesn't know that because I did it at noon and it was already a mess again when he got home. Now I get to do it again before bed. All that to say, I'm buried with you and I get it.

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  7. you are not alone, and i only have one munchkin so far!

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  8. For one, I don't think "other moms" DO do it. They just make you think they do. Or satan convinces you they do and you don't, but it's not true.

    And second, I know I saw three little boys' names on the Parents Night Out roster and Friday's only four days away!

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  9. gretchen from lifenutTue Oct 13, 12:50:00 PM

    I agree. Other moms don't keep on top of everything. You only see what they want you to see, right? When you go to their houses for coffee/playdate/whatever everything looks clean.

    Don't open the hall closet.

    You might be able to when all her kids are in college. Out of state.

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  10. i am stalling with piles of the girls' winter clothes all over the floor too. laundry this time of year is such a nightmare with some summer stuff and a few winter things mixed in. it makes for too many piles. i understand that buried feeling. hope you get some time to recharge soon, my friend.

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  11. SO glad you posted this, because I feel EXACTLY this way today. I feel like NOTHING got done, yet I was working at things all day.

    For some reason your blog isn't showing up in bloglines, so I've missed a bunch of posts!

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  12. you.just.described.my.life. but with 2 boys, instead of 3. oh, but don't worry... my 3rd boy will be here in the next 4-6 weeks. on one hand, i love having clothes that can be handed down from boy to boy. on the other hand, i abhor having to switch out clothes seasonally. if i'd had a girl, i could have just donated or sold all of the clothes that having been in and out of the basement over the last 6 years.

    (and don't feel bad. there are crumbs from last night's dinner still on my floor and 3 baskets of laundry from last week that still haven't been folded). that is, well, just awesome...

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