Our Messy Home | Five-Minute Friday

If it weren't for Five-Minute Friday I likely would have forgotten today IS Friday!

October means nocturnal harvest hours for my husband and daddy being gone all the time has been hard for our toddler to understand. This is farming and I'm fine with that. Though this week has felt like it's Monday EVERY DAY!

Today our free write topic is "family". Stop by the link-up to check out everyone else's writing as well :)

What's a "free write"? No editing, no over-thinking, no worrying about perfect grammar or punctuation. Just write!


00:00 START the timer!
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No matter how hard I try to keep it up, I feel like our house is always a mess.

Maybe one room is clean but then all of the others are messy. If the laundry is caught up, the kitchen must look like the aftermath of a tornado. It's rarely all clean at once!

Back in January, my husband was at an out-of-state training for three weeks. With just the toddler and I at home, Baby W still "in utero", my husband gone and brother-in-law back at school, keeping the house up was so much easier.

The chores were all done and mess was gone. My husband's work boots weren't tracking dirt, I didn't need to cook full meals and therefore we had much fewer dishes.

But the house felt quiet and lonely, especially when my toddler was sleeping. While I'm not an advocate for neglecting the home, those three weeks helped me to see blessings in the mess.

Dirty dishes in the sink is evidence of our family meal. We are blessed with food to eat and we have enjoyed the time together!

The mountainous pile of laundry means we have clothes to wear. Like a lot of clothes! Too many clothes...

My husband's greasy work clothes mean he is working to provide for our family and he is blessed with a great job.

The little baby and toddler outfits mean the Lord has blessed us with two beautiful baby boys!

The impossibility of having every room in the house clean means there are numerous rooms in our house! Having a bigger house (compared to our last one) is a wonderful thing I don't want to take for granted.

I'm tired and, no, the baby is not sleeping through the night. Yet I feel so blessed to have that baby boy to snuggle with at night. He is an answer to prayer!

My devotion time in the morning tends to be distracted because the toddler joins me to "read his Bible" (translated: I read to him) at 6:00 am. I'm thankful for him joining me because I want him to see the importance of spending time with the Lord and reading the Bible.

Our home isn't perfect, it's certainly more messy and much more exhausted than it was four years ago. But I love it.

Keeping a perfect home isn't my mission as a stay-at-home mom. It's not about the vacuuming or the loads of laundry I do.

Staying home with my children is about investing time in our family. I'm here to teach our children about the Lord, to take care of my families needs and, yes, to make this sometimes... okay, usually... messy house our home.

This messy home is full of family, love, memories and, most importantly, Jesus.
Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love,
   that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.
Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us,
   for as many years as we have seen trouble.
May Your deeds be shown to your servants,
   your splendor to their children.
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us;
   establish the work of our hands for us—
   yes, establish the work of our hands.
PSALM 90:14-17
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05:00 STOP the timer!



Comments

  1. Visiting from Five Minute Friday. I enjoyed your post and it sounds to me like you have your priorities right. May God continue to bless you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Cathy God is so good even in life's messes :)

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  2. I was just bemoaning about this very thing. I had to stay home from church Wednesday night to clean because there is no time in the day for cleaning. Thank you for providing a positive perspective on something so overwhelming.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Giving thanks to the Lord is a great perspective-changer! I struggle with the messy house thing often... reminding myself of the blessings helps to make the chores a little more pleasant.

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  3. A messy house is a sign of love and an active family- and yes, those are blessings! I can count all the times my house was clean on one hand when my kids were little, they were happy and clean that mattered most! Enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That makes me think of a sign my brother and sis-in-law have. It goes something like "Please Excuse the Mess. We Live Here." Love it!

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