I'm no Martha Stewart

Mountains of laundry waiting to be folded, grubby refrigerator, sticky kitchen floor, streaks on all the mirrors, piles of papers to file, dust gathering, muddy pawprints on the carpet, dirty dishes covering the counter...... and little ones clamoring for attention nonstop. The list of things to do never seems to shrink when you're a mom of young children. I know we all get overwhelmed with trying to keep a neat and organized house at least once in awhile, some of us more than others. I have a very large house, and while the space is wonderful to have, when it comes time to clean (which is every day to some degree), I get behind and discouraged often. I read some blogs of ladies who never seem to have this problem because they have such dedication to their schedules and stay on top of things consistently. I am NOT one of those ladies. However, I do take solace in the words of a very wise 70 year old friend, who shared with me the advice her mother gave her years ago. She said, "If your house is messy and a guest comes over, one of two things will happen. Either she'll see that you're not perfect and don't always have your act together and then won't feel so bad about herself and her lack of "perfection" (because we all know that as women, we're constantly comparing ourselves to others) OR she'll see that you're messier than she is and feel better about herself. Whichever happens, your guest went away feeling happy! And that should make you feel happy too!"
So now whenever I start to feel down because I can't seem to make my house as neat as I want, even for social gatherings, let alone every day, and I lack that knack for decorating you see in the magazines, I try to remember that all that stuff probably doesn't make real people feel better anyways.