Dirty or lived in?

With three kids, the word clean is a rarity, unless thats what your demanding one of them go do. "Go clean your room" is heard much more often than "Look honey, the house is clean!". I do my best to keep my house clean, and most of the time its not bad, maybe just an F1 or F2 tornado. Then there are days when it surpasses an F5, which makes you want to pick up the phone and call the National Weather Association and tell them you have proof of an F10 tornado, and its brothers.

So where do you draw the line between dirty and lived in? I consider my house lived in. The floor is vacuumed at least once a day, and I do sweep & mop and keep our counters wiped down. Did I mention I usually do this at about... oh... let's say 2:30a.m. Have you ever heard the saying, "Cleaning up while kids are still awake, is like shoveling snow while its still snowing". How true is that?!? Most of the time I have everything organized (ish), but sometimes I look at my house and think, honestly, that someone might think we were pigs.

Then I think of it this way, how many times have YOU, as a mother, went to someones house where kids were playing and thought, "Omg, this is nasty". Not often, because YOU as a mother, know exactly what your kids (hubbies included) can do to a house. I do get the urge sometimes (when asked how many kids I have) to say four! Thats how many people's clothes I wash, how many I cook dinner for and clean up after, and how many I have to remind not to put random things in their mouths! "Rileigh, don't jump on the bed", "Gavin, get out of the toilet", "Robert, stop chewing on the remote!"

So, on that last note, my life is very busy. I take care of 4 people, in one house. We laugh, we play, and sometimes, putting off the dishes to roll around on the floor with your kids, says much more about you, than a clean house. So if I have to ask myself this question again (which I will daily), I'll proudly say, while dodging a handful of Cheerios flying my way, LIVED IN!