Life = Mess

This morning, as my boys ate their breakfast while reading the comic books I borrowed from the library yesterday, I posted this photo on Facebook.

Always feeling the need to show 'my best self', I actually cropped out most of the mess.

Later, while perusing Facebook, I spotted a this post shared by a friend and, fresh from my mess cropping, it struck an obvious chord. 

So, in the spirit of honesty, this is what it actually looks like. 

It is a mess and I don't like mess, but I love this room.

For a start, check out how much natural light floods in! In fact, we have to close the curtains in the afternoon because the sun blinds us as it sets over the garden. I haven't lined the curtains intentionally so that they diffuse the light without blocking it completely. 

You can't tell from this photo, but the book shelf is collapsing, presumably from over use. Too many books is no bad thing. I'll get new shelves soon because it's getting a bit risky. The whole thing is leaning over, resting on the wall, but soon the shelves will dislodge sending their contents spilling to the floor - hopefully not on top of a small boy!

The window sill is covered in magazines, mostly home decor related (oddly enough) and toys. The magazines have been there for over a year but they can't go into the recycling before I've ransacked them for inspiration. Until a week ago, there was actually twice as many but I've finally been finding time to go through them.

The table, ah the table. I've been meaning to clear it and probably will today while the man beasts are at school. It has the remains of Ed's breakfast bowl and his Spider-Man comic, the newspaper I was reading earlier (which a school friend has featured in due to her recent charitable efforts), the laptop after our Mathletics session last night, a flyer from the library telling us when the boys Summer Reading Challange award ceremony is, the boys homework, Mr Strawberry's fishing books, and of course lots and lots of toys. As I've mentioned before, the boys lost their playroom recently and their stuff was moved to the dining room, which means I basically lost my dining table. In a few months we'll be rebuilding the entire kitchen and it will include a little dining booth so the boys can have this space, it's all theirs. It's only fair after all. I'll put up with dinner surrounded by stuff for now. I'm looking forward to removing the big table and replacing it with a boy sized table so they have more floor space.

For now, I don't really care how messy it is, this space is so heavily used by the boys, and they leave their mark on it, even if it's with everything they've playing with for the last few days. They sit at this table for hours on end playing and chatting. 

The Momastery post pointed out the horribly obvious things we take for granted and I always enjoy being reminded of those things. I get that spine tingling eureka moment every time (probably because my memory is so terrible) that no! It doesn't matter if my walls aren't a chic duck egg blue or whatever trendy right now, WE live here. 
We love here. 
We learn here.

That is all that really matters.

The image we are sold by the media of pristine homes is no different from the images of skinny chicks. Real life is quite different. We won't all look like Kate Moss and and we won't all have 'show home' houses. I admire anyone who can keep up with the mess of children and keep their homes much closer to 'perfect' than I can seem to keep mine. It's too time consuming for me and I have too many other things I really want to spend my time on. It's all about priorities I guess, and while I refuse to judge anyone else for how they chose to spend their time (so long as it's not detrimental to other people), I don't want to be judged for mine. In my opinion life is for living and cleaning shouldn't take priority over doing interesting stuff, at least not alllll the time anyway.

In the past, I often caught myself not taking a photo simply because the background was an absolute tip, or at least not posting it on Facebook. I didn't want people to see the mess we live in most days. I've spent so long fighting against various issues to get my house nice (mostly Mr Strawberry's inability to throw anything out), it still hasn't happened but I'm not going to let it hold me back.
Screw it! 
Like life, my house is transitory and that always means mess. Mr Strawberry and I are always talking about what we want to do with the house (we moved in seven years ago and still haven't finished fixing it up).
I'll obviously keep tidying and cleaning, but I won't ever not a take a photo just because of the mess.
So, excuse my unpainted skirting boards and drawn on walls. Excuse me if I haven't managed to vacuum today. Excuse the cereal bar wrappers and dirty dishes (my growing boys eat too often to be able to keep up with the mess). Let's enjoy our lives and take lots of photos because soon they'll move on and they won't leave their mess here. All I'll have is our memories and allllll those photos. I won't be looking at the mess in the background. I'll be remembering those smiles, those infectious giggles and those moments when we laughed until our sides hurt. 
And hopefully they'll  come over for Sunday dinner and leave my table in a mess again.