Our Home:

a place where everything has a designated location, but nothing is currently in it.

I love organizing. I like to have all my spices organized on a step system, neatly tucked away in my spice cabinet. I have created a filing system for any incoming mail, information, recipes, etc. to keep paperwork clutter at a minimum. I use a caddy for the daily "get ready" items in my bathroom, so that I can put it all away quickly before I leave the house. I line things up, labels facing the front, items neatly stacked, everything arranged categorically...obsessive compulsive some would say. No offense taken. :)

With all of these organizational systems in place, one would expect to walk through our front door and find a tidy, clean, efficiently-run home. And if you call first and give me a few hours, I can probably scurry around enough and present that facade. (I do caution, however, against opening any closed doors.) If you surprise me, though, and just drop by...well...you will see instead, that life with a preschooler and a toddler have successfully challenged my organizational skills. They win.

Isaac spends his day moving toys and other items from one room to another. I believe he secretly enjoys the repeated scavenger hunts for missing and hidden pieces and parts. Noah usually leaves things in the correct room, but has determined that nothing is to stay in its designated location. Drawers are merely fun, sliding boxes, clearly created as temporary storage facilities for items that truly desire to be out in the open. Bookshelves are obviously designed with open fronts to better enable full sweeps of residing books onto the floor in front of them. All of my cute, well-thought-out storage containers serve much better purposes as hats worn on one's head, cars to be sat in and driven, or just empty, open holes...sitting...waiting to protect their little spot of carpet from any dust falling from the ceiling.

I recently "dumpster-dove" for this beautiful, cherry filing cabinet left by some neighbors moving out across the street. As for the filing folders waiting to occupy its drawers...well, the stream of mail lining my kitchen counter, the "need to file" papers piled on my desk, the unclipped coupons stacked on my printer, and the magazines and catalogs sitting on a spare dining chair all attest to the fact that I, myself, am also failing to persevere in my organizational endeavors...still searching for the time in each day to put items into them. My organizational efforts have turned, for now, into good intentions...I'm trying to resign myself to the idea that our home will remain in a state of disarray for the next few years, despite my continual efforts to the contrary. I know that someday, all too soon, I'll be wishing for that tiny smiling face, looking up at his mama, proudly showing off the thoroughly-emptied laundry hamper and the pile of dirty laundry now lying on the floor.