Thirty-One Days of Thankful: Our Messy House

You might recall that our farm was hit by a tornado in July of this year. The damage outside was awe-inspiring and somewhat saddening, and we're still dealing with the clean-up. It was, and is, a long process. But most of all, we're just really thankful that our house was left standing and no one was hurt, and it has been a life lesson about just how temporal the things of this world can be.

Did you know, however, about the two tornadoes that have gone through our house?

Tornado #1:

Tornado #2:

And if you count my daycare kids, that would be Tornadoes #3, #4 and #5.

And if you count my husband, that would be Tornado #6.

But he helps clean up, a lot, and does dishes, so we won't count him.

Basically, my house looks like this...

...on a daily basis.

Then there's Little Blue Eyes' room...

...which is a path of devastation all its own.

I took a laundry basket -- and then some -- of toys out of his room about a week ago and banished them to the basement, and it still has the propencity to look like this. He's inherited his dad's and grandpa's love of tinkering with tractors, cars, tools and building materials, but not so much the desire to put them away again.

But he's five, so I cut him a little slack. And he does pick up when we ask him to. Then, by about 7:39 a.m. the next morning, his room looks like this again.

After his birthday party a few weeks ago, our house was about as clean as it ever gets, and I naively fell into the momentary delusion that we could keep it looking that way. I quickly shook myself out of that state, so as not to experience devastating disappointment when it didn't happen.

And that's good, because it didn't happen.

His birthday party was on a Sunday evening.

By Monday afternoon, the house was back to it's usual tornadic state.

It was around this time that I realized how thankful I am, actually, for our messy house. Or rather, how thankful I am for the little mess-making tornadoes within it. Our house is messy because there is life within it! Our floors are littered with toys; our walls and tables have scratches and marker on them; our carpets need to be shampooed. But if our house remained perfectly neat and tidy, it would be because these little children weren't in it, or it would be because my husband and I were spending too much time worrying about how everything looked instead of spending time with our kids, and I wouldn't wish for either of those things.

I remind myself of this when I'm picking up toys for the 7000th time each week.

I'll remind myself of this while I do laundry today.

I'll remind myself of this when I wipe milk and crumbs off the counter.

I'll remind myself of this when I sit on the potty, only to find my hiney a bit wet from droplets left behind.

Some things are easier to overlook than others; I'd really prefer not to have a wet hiney. But I'll take it -- and even be thankful for it -- if it means certain little someones are weaving themselves throughout our days.