On Mess & Stress

In an effort to enjoy life more and stress less, I have been really trying to be better about letting some things go. (Don't ask Craig how I am doing in this department. It's an ongoing process and any progress is likely invisible to him. But it's happening. I promise.) Part of this "letting go" has to do with the constant messes that dot our beautiful, homey landscape. I have been letting the girls leave their toys out so they can play with them the next day, instead of having them clean up before bed each night, and I just close their bedroom door so that I don't have to look at the chaos. Works for them. Works for me.

Yesterday, though, was a mandatory clean-up day. It had been a long while since their room resembled anything that a vacuum cleaner could actually traverse, and it was time. So they worked their hearts out and cleaned & vacuumed, and finally got it looking pretty pristine for one treasured day.

Less than 24 hours later, it looks like this again:

I will take this time to say that I am so glad that they are young enough to still want play with toys, that they play TOGETHER (albeit with the occasional scream and/or slammed door), that they still use their imaginations constantly, and that they haven't turned the television on at all today,

These are very wonderful, rare things, that I both recognize and appreciate. This time in their childhoods is so precious, and fleeting, and so I'm going to say, "play your little hearts out while you can, my sweeties...

...but please, please close your door and save me from the mess".

P.S. Our camera is totally broken. It was in Craig's pocket when we went skating last Monday, and he fell on it, and now the screen is cracked and the focus is all weird. It kinda looks like I focused on one part of the picture intentionally, but nope, it's just the funky camera. Busted hand, busted camera...Labor Day was a bang-up day for us!