We're Back!

After an extended vacation, both physically (from home) and mentally (from blogging), we're back. It's been wonderfully refreshing to get away but I'm excited to be getting back into a routine.

One of the great things about being away is coming home again. Walking into our very spacious house after 2 weeks staying with relatives we realized that it's easier to be thankful for what you have when you haven't had it for a while. It's so nice to be able to stretch out, sleep one to a bed and ride scooters through the kitchen again.

But it can make us discontent as well. My sister-in-law has a beautiful home. There are rugs on the floors, pictures on the walls, and all the little touches that make a home 'complete'. The walls are painted in coordinating colors. It's tidy. It smells nice. My mother-in-law's place is the same. My home, on the other hand, is furnished. We have couches and tables and lamps. We have family portraits on the walls, but little art. It's tidy, um, when the kids are in bed.

It's not that I don't want a showroom house, I do. I adore Martha Stewart and drool of the pictures of rooms over at Favorite Paint Colors. But I live with six other people, none of whom are particularly tidy and more than half of whom can't be expected to take much responsibility over themselves. Also I'm not exactly a natural talent at interior decorating. Organized, yes. Accessorized, not so much.

But that's okay. Looking around my house I see toys strewn about, bare walls, and fingerprints on the sliding glass door and I long for a magazine cover home. But someday, when my children are grown, I'll be looking around my magazine cover home and wishing for toys and fingerprints. We have children because they bring an unequaled amount of joy and love to our lives. There are side effects, yes. But they're worth it.

September is always a time of renewal for us; I like to set goals and make resolutions at this time of year. This year I think I'll resolve to be more appreciative of my big, messy, happy home. And also to buy some rugs.

"Parents are often so busy with the physical rearing of children that

they miss the glory of parenthood, just as the grandeur of the trees is lost 

when raking leaves. " Marecelene Cox