Messy Bessy visits our house...

But, hopefully, she's not here to stay...

Looking around my house this morning, I realized it looked like a scene from some very strange movie called, "Crafting Gone Wild!" I'm making candles for my daughters' cheer team. So candle paraphernalia is scattered throughout the downstairs. My kids were making painted pillow cases yesterday morning when I left for work. And the remnants of that session are still all over the kitchen table. We've been E-Baying to sell old PS2 games. And there is packaging, unsold games and all sorts of other necessary items on the dining room table.

Where do you eat, you ask? Well, that would be in the den, where the empty diet coke cans are lined up across the coffee table.

There are toys and clothes the kids have "decorated" the downstairs and upstairs with all over the floor and any other available surface. Pool bags with towels, swim covers, goggles and sunscreen sit patiently by the door waiting to be carried out.

It makes me want to run away from home! And yet, the only person who can fix it all is: me. The kids are totally content with this cornucopia of mass messiness. Hubby absolutely hates it. But he travels enough that he can leave it behind like a bad memory.

I would be more diligent in my cleaning efforts, but 1: I hate doing it, and 2: I'm just not home enough to do it; I work two different jobs, both away from home. And I'm trying to keep 3 kids somewhat entertained without having to pay for too much childcare.

I try to focus on the benefits of this lifestyle. 1. The kids are having a good taste of what college life will be like, and will adapt well when they get there (minus the empty beer cans and dirty underwear- I do have some standards). 2. We have a good visual on where everything is, because nothing is put away. 3. We save all sorts of time by not cleaning up.

Some of the negatives (which are beginning to outweigh the positives, if I have to be honest) are: 1. I'm so very tired of stepping on little bitty toys with sharp pointy edges. 2. I always cringe when someone comes in the house and I watch their eyes sweep around the room and try to determine what all the clutter is about. 3. I have this nagging, guilty feeling that I am somehow being a bad parent to my children because they don't have the picture-perfect, Pottery Barn-esque home.

There will be a time when no children are gallivanting around the house, flinging around "stuff". The house may be "clean" then- but, boy, will it feel empty! We can clean the house. But these kids are only here for a little while. Then they go off to homes of their own (although many of my friends report that their kids keep coming back, much to their chagrin).

The house will be "attacked" and cleaned this weekend. We will keep it relatively clean for a period of time. Then one morning, I'll descend the stairs, and realize we are back up to critical mass. Thus, goes the cycle.

I would love to teach my children the art of keeping the house perpetually neat (I say "neat" because despite the sound of all this, I DO keep the house "clean"). However, I myself am not really able to master that particular skill.

So for now, we look like an elementary frat house after a night of serious playing and soda and snacks. I'm just warning you, in case you come to my house and this kind of mess offends you. If you want to come to a neat house, wait 'til Monday.