Messes and marks

By Cooper

There is no peace in my universe until all the beds are made.

Once upon a time it took a lot more in the category of domestic orderliness to bring me a sense of harmony, but nowadays, with a ton of kids and a hyper little dog, made beds is about as close to household perfection as it gets.

That is saying something about how far I have come (I hope my husband is reading this), but I am especially proud of the fact that I don't break out in hives anymore when a bag of pretzel rods is upended in the playroom.

Going through the process of lowering my somewhat compulsive standards has also made me appreciate the difference between making a mess and leaving a mark.

My definition of a mess can be summed up in the time the kids developed a goo in the pantry using cherry Kool-Aid, flour and water with which they painted the dog. He's still pink.

Or maybe it is their clothes. I don't know about you but my kids have more clothes than could possibly be good for them. I know their clothes sure aren't good for me. Every single time I open one of their drawers or look in one of their closets, my heart starts to palpitate.

Of course there's the stinky garbage bags full of dirty diapers and the pile of laundry hissing at me from the back room. The worst, though, was our old highchair. My son, unbeknownst to me, was shoving food into a crack in the highchair's pad. One day, when I was wiping the chair off, I noticed something, um, crawling. I am gagging as I type, so I won't continue, but I am sure you get the picture.

I'll keep it to the house and not even go to describing the minivan, although I will say that if we were ever stranded in a snow storm, we could live off the detritus on the floor of our vehicle for weeks.

Despite the seemingly endless clutter, piles and stuff, there are a couple things in our house that might be considered by some to be "messy" but I think of them more like "marks." And that, as they say, is a good thing.

Across the top of the wooden kitchen table are tiny indentations which were made over the years by my kids when they were toddlers pounding their little forks and spoons as they learned how to feed themselves. I imagine the day when my kids bring home dates and I can point out the marks. But mainly I treasure how those dents bring back memories of their soft baby hair and chubby hands.

I always chuckle when I see the mini scratch marks (made by our absurdly short dog) at the foot of the back door. And I can't bear to think of the day -- if we ever move -- when someone would actually paint over the wall covered with our jumbled, handwritten height chart. 

My favorite mark, however, is on the stone patio off the back of our house. Last summer the kids got out what I thought was washable paint and made green, red and purple hand and foot prints all over the stone. When it rained the next day and the prints were still there, I took a look at the paint jars and read the word "permanent." Yep, our once-grown up, elegant looking patio is now covered with a rainbow of hands and feet.      

The best part is, although my children's hands and feet grow bigger every day, the marks on the stone outside and on the table (or on my heart, for that matter) just stay where they are and never go away.

Comments

[mom]

You have an amazing way with words. you also have an ability to capture those small-enormous moments that mark our days ......that's a gift......
You can create a vignette of our day-to-day lives that allows us to see what a blessing it is to be a mom and what a challenge it is to be a kid.
GO GIRL!!!!!!!

[mgood]

I love your descriptions of a lived-in and loved-in home, and am glad I have all of that to look forward to. As the mother of a one year old, it was only recently that I had to learn to strive for completion, not perfection. It is my favourite bit of advice from someone (of course I can't remember who it was) and it's the first thing I tell my friends who are new moms. But I still make the bed every morning, because then I know I've done at least one thing right each day.

[kat]

We have a height chart on our wall of kiddo#1's growth. It's just pencil markings on the wall. And we also have a belly chart on the same wall with pencil markings of my Belly growing. If we ever have to move, I'd like to bring that wall with me. My MIL (a neat freak at best) can't understand why we can't have a paper chart and leave the walls alone but I like having personal details around the house that say "We live here." A great post today! :)