There are so many ways I’m an imperfect mum. These are one of them: can’t keep a tidy house. This is breakfast, homemade bread in a my trusty loaf pan, taken haphazardly over toy knick-knacks strewn over the kitchen counter. 

This mess is a constant. It never really goes away. It nags and scratches at my seemingly capable veneer of motherhood.
The desire to want to be able to “keep a neat house” creeps in insidiously and I suddenly feel the urge to start yelling: “Who’s things are these…come and keep them!” for the umpteenth time…in a week or so, or more accurately many years or so…of picking up on toy trails and running after the little ones to keep house.

This desire…wells up…

  

But am glad it hits me fast. These terribly imperfect messes are actually really pretty perfect.

They are perfect traces of the days with our children. The times that they are with us, under our rainbow of care and love.

They are the perfect present of the NOW: the heady schedules, dirty laundry, tumble and fun, picking of fights, wiping little tears…

How utterly foolish we might be if we are tempted to strike them off as messy and undesirable, just because these don’t make US look good on the outside…

This amazing season of living with young children in our homes and hearts are not going to last forever.

In a flash, we would wish we were picking up toys. We would miss witnessing the crazy, bustling, messiness of life within the home. We would miss having breakfast and seeing traces of the children at every turn and corner in the echoes of our empty hallways. Our furniture would look and feel tidy but cold without a warm little body to snuggle close. Indeed,the days are long but the years are short.

This desire, it dissolves…

Only to return, in the thankfulness and resolve to live in the joy, abundance and the mess of each and every imperfect day…

I love tidy homes, but as a mum, I am convinced it is so much more important to keep a tidy heart. Weeding out our blatant insecurities, worries and expectations at the start of each day and enjoying, no, reveling in the spirit of a happy home filled with dirty laundry, tumble and fun and trailing toys ❤️.

#mumphilosophy #gratitude #keepingatidyheart