#dirtypics: the car edition

When we last met to discuss our [#]dirtypics  , I can't believe I failed to mention the space that quickly becomes the dirtiest of all: our van. And when you all shared your dirty pictures with me, no one shared their car! So am I alone in this? I hope not. I think not. 

I once had a friend come visit with her two children. When they arrived after their several hour car journey, their kids came tumbling out of the back of their van with stuff literally stuck to them. There were so many snacks crunched into the floorboards I didn't know if I should laugh, avert my eyes, or start munching. The dad said he once judged one of his friends pretty badly when he saw the inside of his vehicle. One or two kids should not cause that, he condemned in silence. But as his own children shook off their debris, he laughed as he shared this story with us, shaking his head at his own ignorance. 

Here's the deal with the car: it gets you from here to there, and while going from here to there the kids are strapped in to a 5-point harness and can hardly move. Which means they are limited for entertainment. Which means you keep chucking toys back at them, and when that fails you dig into the snacks. And when they start throwing their Cheerios for entertainment purposes, you let them because they are being quiet. Parenting while driving-- we decided it was worse than texting. [But don't text while you're driving.] 

So all of the above happens, and you get to your destination, or your home, and all you want to do is get out of the vehicle. So you leave the remains. And the three pairs of shoes your three year old has taken off on three separate trips. And the books. And the toys. And the spare diapers. And I am just going to pretend that sippy cup that I know rolled under the driver's seat is gone forever because I don't want to imagine what it will smell like if I open it. 

I was thinking about all of this, and our need to be open and share our realities more. I won't lie, this is not THAT bad for my van. Nothing sticky was happening and the backseat was surprisingly calm. But here is a peek at the front and the back: 

Let me break this down for you.

The front seat:
/ A box of diapers. Obviously.
/ Goodnight Moon. Because I need an option to throw back at the girls at any given moment.
/ My purse… and oh my goodness that should probably be my next [#]dirtypics post. Yikes.
/ Hand sanitizer, for those emergency "I HAVE TO GO POTTY!" right now moments on the highway.
/ A giant cup from McDonalds. This is unusual for our van. I won't lie. But I snapped this on the day of our anniversary, and we celebrated after church my going to McDonalds and a park. We're so fancy, you guys.
/ Crunch candybar wrapper. That was all me.
/ Stickers from church nursery. Does your church have these? And if so are they EVERYWHERE in your house? When a number flashes on the screen at church are you panicking because you currently have 5 numbers stashed in your bible and 12 in your purse and you have NO IDEA if that number is yours because you have 17 to sort through?!
/ Sunglasses. Which will break in the next week. [True story.]
/ Two bottles of partially empty water.
/ A church bulletin.
/ And, if you look very closely, you will see that under the tray is a dirty diaper. Does that mean I win and you all can stop now?

Moving on to the back seat which, like I said, is relatively calm and clean:

Okay. Actually this is too calm. Some random toys and books, a snack container, and crumbs. I'm patting myself on the back. Nothing looks stained either, so bonus points.

But seriously, I get stressed out when the van is messy and I try. But after one day it looks like I haven't touched it in months. And during softball season when I'm driving out to the ball field everyday and hauling things? Forget it. I think Newton needs a new law: What goes up must land in your van. 

The girls don't seem to mind though. They actually find it quite peaceful, apparently.

Your turn! Email me or post to my facebook. I can't wait!

#dirtypics / Take Two

I seriously can't get enough of your [#]dirtypics. < Speaking of which, can someone please come up with a hashtag that won't get us all reported? [And if you missed the original post and are confused, click HERE.]  This is all coming from a person who loves organization, and no clutter. But reality doesn't always match my brain. I think on Pinterest there should be pictures of beautiful room designs, and then a side by side of the same room after it's lived in.

First, let me start with a picture of my desk where I am typing this: 

I couldn't NOT have a follow up after I got such an awesome response. So please, read through these comments I received and take a looksy at these pictures, and then go put your feet up on your piles of laundry and pour yourself another cup of coffee. 

//  It's funny about the laundry thing you said: this is my pile from a month ago I'm just now folding- the big piles are all donations because I'm sick of having to fold so many clothes-- I'm just donating the clothes we really don't need. 3 bags so far.

 //  I often think this while I am posting cute pics of A. when there is a sink full of dishes behind her or laundry baskets on the floor!

//  I am SO SORRY I cleaned the boy's bathroom before I read this, or I could make you feel like Superwoman. Just picture lots of soap scum and dog hair everywhere. I sprayed basically the whole room down with KABOOM, used the toilet brush to clean the shower and tub, and paper toweled the rest. If they don't like this, if they should notice their feet burning in the shower or the coughing up of dog hair, I figure they can clean as well as I can. Take that boys. grin emoticon

//  From the mom who had the upstairs bathroom painted light yellow because a teenage boy lives here and I hate to clean bathrooms (gross, sorry, but true). And this is my end of the school year kitchen island/bar..... (And I don't even have the energy to care....give me a week)

//  I so often fall prey to the, "our house is a mess, this dinner was terrible, I have no clean clothes, I'm the worst wife ever & (insert name here) always has it together!" mentality. It's easy to forget that no one has it all together!

//  Before kids my house was spot less, literally spot less! Now I 'try' to care but after running after a 3 year old and a one year old all I want to do is have 1 second of quiet. I 'try' to still keep a clean house but after putting toys away 100 times I just don't care "they will drag them back out tomorrow, so I'm going to bed." M's face stays dirty most all day, (she hates her face being washed) so it only really gets washed when we leave the house or bed time. I know every mother feels this way but it still makes me feel bad when I see everyone's 'perfect' house/kids.

//  That's a coffee table. Or maybe a ranch. There is a lot of imagination going on in this house. More imagination than cleaning these days.

//  I do laundry once a week and then spend the rest of the week struggling to dig through the mounds of clean clothes to find something to wear! Dishes...forget it...Momma's tired after supper time! 

//  I'm right there with you! I use the crib containment pretty frequently to try to get to use the bathroom by myself. And I removed all of the winter clothes from W's drawer this weekend (in frustration over him constantly wanting to wear sweatshirts when it's 80 degrees outside) and they are sitting in a basket waiting to be put away. C. still has 3 month clothes and winter clothes in his dresser and desperately needs 12-18 month stuff moved into it but I haven't gotten that far yet. And this is the current state of my basement floor, I call this clean enough for company these days

//  I just vacuumed and mopped the floor yesterday. I love my family and dog, but sometimes I 
want to shave the dog bald and confine my family in the garage.

//  This is the state of our entire home. Unpacking is a beast.

please, everyone, do not miss the BABY IN THE LAUNDRY BASKET! my favorite. 

//  Giving myself a pat on the back. We're doing awesome! Below picture is unpacked boxes in our spare room. Yep, we'll get those one day. Close the door for now.

//  From your post: "This random assortment of bills and coupons and hair clips and other paraphernalia is happening..." 
Yes. "Is happening..." As in, "it's not done yet...it's still progressing..." As in, "it is actively getting worse by the second..." As in, MY ENTIRE HOUSE.

 // Last week, [my husband] was gone and we did no cleaning the week before he left. Then I did no cleaning the week he was gone. I ate only macaroni and cheese and ice cream and cookies. Then I cleaned for five hours before he came home, even though he said he didn't care. But I cared and sometimes I just need something to happen out of the routine for anything to get done. 

//  Gathering for a yard sale here for the upcoming weekend...and trucking all the stuff to my mother's in [another town]! Our piles may beat your piles...on the other hand, our closets look awesome, you can now walk into the storage garage and what doesn't sell is going to Goodwill! My laundry piles are on the bathroom floor and you should see the top of my coffee table. 

//  My kid is mad because I put clothes on him. His fort is crushed and the house is a disaster. My pile of laundry would give you nightmares.

And if reading through those is not the absolute best way to go into your weekend, I give you this: 

I messed up taco night last night when the shells got overlooked in the toaster oven while I attended to Blythe. This was actually terrifying, but Brent to the rescue!! He threw the entire thing outside and saved the house. Sheesh. Taco shells!?! Of all things. I'm going back to peanut butter and jelly. 

And send me your ideas for a hastag that will not link us to nightmares. And then let's keep this conversation going, please? 

#dirtypics

About a year ago some friends from small group were joking about how we needed to start posting "dirty pictures" on our social media. Before you all disown me, of course we only were referring to realistic pictures of our lives that are not glitzy, not Pinterest worthy, and not something an Instagram filter could clean up. Reality. The raw, the messy, the every day. The parts of us we don't post on instagram. One of the guys said we should post those pictures and hashtag dirtypics. Unfortunately our idea of #dirtypics and others' ideas of #dirtypics are different, so that idea was put to rest quickly, but not before he posted a picture of his wife cleaning out her pantry at 1 a.m. #dirtypics.

I like this idea, and it was one that I was struck by again when I was recently listening to a sermon about this very topic. Women in particular struggle with the comparison game anyway, so why do we subject ourselves to "the scroll"? You know what I mean by the scroll-- flipping through Facebook or Instagram, seeing the well-balanced meal your friend  coworker-from-8-years-ago-that-you-haven't-talked-to-since-you-moved-7-years-ago-posted and feeling bad about the frozen pizza you just stuck in the oven for your family...again.

I don't intentionally post pictures with the thought "oh, this will make me look really good and make it look like I have it all together." BUT, I also rarely post pictures of meltdowns and dirty diapers and piles of laundry, so by the lack of their appearance I am often just painting one portion of the picture. Which presents a falsity. Which is where the struggle begins because we all do that. And when you take that times the 500 people we are scrolling through, well, our dirty dishes and tantrum-ing toddler can seem not good enough. And where did I go wrong? 

You didn't go wrong. You're doing awesome. We're just not posting our own dirty pictures.

So, lest I ever leave you with some false ideas of my reality, here are some of my truths:

/ the girls woke up early today. Early to them is not early early, but still I stay up too late reading and so any amount of early makes me grumpy and can't-get-out-of-bed-y. So I let Becks cry for about 15 minutes, and I went in Blythe's room and told her she could get out of bed but had to stay in her room and promptly shut the door. I texted Brent, who was finishing his workout in the mudroom, to come get Becks and I crawled back in bed. #lazy

/I hate meal time. It's the worst. I never know what to make the girls and regardless of what I make all they want is bread and crackers anyway, so nine times out of ten they get peanut butter sandwiches. They don't eat enough fruit. They don't like enough vegetables. #healthy

/ Becks is in a screaming stage. I think she wants to talk but can't but knows what she wants but can't communicate it...thus screaming. Real pleasant. #thevolumeisinsane

/ I had a friend over for coffee this morning and no sooner had she walked in the door than Blythe threw herself on the floor in a fit because her doll wouldn't fit properly in the blanket. Legs flailing. Welcome to our home. #hospitality

/ Yesterday we rushed home from church, threw the girls in their beds for nap, and were scrounging in the fridge for lunch. Brent was getting some stuff out, so I stuck my head in the fridge and was handing him the other ingredients he needed, but he didn't take them from me immediately and I got impatient. He sensed my impatience, grabbed them from me rather not-nicely, and we ate the first 5 minutes of our lunch in silence. #tilldeath

/  I'm trying to sort through all my closets and drawers and corners and crevices and am getting ready for a big, huge garage sale [June 5 & 6 if you're in the area!], and so there are literally piles everywhere. Today, as I write this post, this is my bathroom:

/ Also, I snapped a picture of my kitchen floor for you:

/ Also, this random assortment of bills and coupons and hair clips and other paraphernalia is happening:

/ When I say I "planted a garden" don't be fooled: I stuck three pepper plants in the corner of my backyard. And when I say "I stuck three pepper plants" don't be fooled: my dad came over and stuck three pepper plants in the corner of my backyard. #greenthumb

/ Sometimes I put the girls in the crib together so I can go to the bathroom by myself. #containthem

/ If we have clothes on before 8:30, Blythe immediately asks where we are going. #wedontgetoutmuch

/ I do laundry on Tuesdays. It usually takes me a solid two weeks before I fold and put away. However, there is still a laundry basket in Becks' room that has [folded!] clothes from approximately 3 weeks ago. #procrastination

/ This weekend I finally sorted through the girls' clothes in their closets and drawers and pulled out the next size and season. I kind of skipped this last year with Blythe's stuff because I had a baby and because Kali was bringing me hand me downs in small doses and it just was a mess. Blythe still had some 18-24 MONTH stuff in her drawers. #organizationskillz

So there you have it. I could go on, and on, but just wanted to make sure to keep it real for ya. I've always felt like I can be vulnerable with others and I tend to trust easily, but social media is its own beast in so many ways and I apologize if I've ever come across as anything other than someone taking a day at a time, sifting through the mess, and enjoying whatever most of what happens.

What would your #dirtypics be?