About Me

South Louisiana
I have been married for 20 years to a great husband and we have 8 children ranging in age from 1 to 18 years. I am a homeschooling mom, which can be very challenging. I love sewing, knitting, reading, gardening and have recently started oil painting. I love to create. I really want to have a blog to show off some of the stuff I create, but I also want to share about my life and family. email me at ctrich8@bellsouth.net

Monday, February 4, 2008

Am I the Only One?

I have been looking at blogs for about a year now, and my favorite ones are all sewing, knitting or craft related. They also have beautiful photography. I know this is probably not the case, as a matter of fact several of the blog writers have stated such. But from the pictures, the houses always look perfectly decorated and perfectly kept. I feel like such a failure! LOL

My house never looks well kept unless I have cleaned it 5 minutes before. Seriously, within an hour, you can barely tell I did any housework at all. It is nearly impossible to keep up with. Now, I do have 7 children and they are homeschooled, so they are ALWAYS at home. There are no times during the day where there is nobody here to mess things up. All meals are eaten in my kitchen, so as soon as breakfast is cleaned up, it is time for lunch, etc. And yes, my children all have chores to do. There is a rotating chore list, so no one is always stuck with the least favorite one. All of the older ones are also required to wash their own clothing once a week. I do all towels, sheets, mine and dh's clothes and the 2 youngest children's clothes, so I still have quite a bit of laundry to do. Anyway, try to fit sewing time in here and you end up with a trashed house most days. It doesn't help that I grew up in a house with a mother who kept everything very neat and clean. Of course, I only had one brother who was 5 years younger than me and we went to school everyday. I really feel better when my house is clean. I find it very difficult to sit down and sew when the house is a wreck, but if I wait until everything is clean, I would never get to enjoy my hobby. I really do have some serious issues with perfectionism. I am a perfectionist who cannot even come close to achieving perfection. Some days it can almost drive me crazy!

Anyway, I said all of that to ask if I am really the only one who struggles with this? In my mind, all of you ladies in blog land always have everything perfectly in place, fix huge and creative meals every night and of course clean up the kitchen immediately afterwards ; ) And then retire to your neat and orderly sewing rooms to sew up some amazing creation and then photograph it beautifully to share the next day on your well written blog. LOL In reality, I know this is not true, and if this IS true for you, I don't want to hear about it!

I will share a picture of what my house looks like right now as I am writing this. I do intend on cleaning up after this blog entry, but I promise, it will be back to looking like the picture by tonight LOL I don't know why I needed to get this out, most days I really don't let this bother me, at least not much, but it has been a rough week.

I added an extra one of the dining room for good measure ; )
I won't even bother showing the childrens' rooms, they do not have my neatfreak tendencies at all! LOL Well, Isabella does, but she shares a room with her sister Sydney, I think at this point she has just given up, poor thing. Even my room, which is usually pretty neat, I have to have someplace to escape to, is a mess this morning :sigh:

9 comments:

Georgia Belle Boutique said...

You are not alone! I only have 3 kids but feel like I can't keep the house clean not matter what I do. Oh well - as long as the kiddos are happy!! Besides -housework should never take away from time to sew!LOL

Kelci said...

That's pretty much what my house looks like except more food on the floor, courtesy of my 18 month old and 4 year old. Actually, I've been making a big effort lately just to keep the kitchen clean because my neighbors come by unannounced. I'm not really embarrassed by toys around the house, it means my kids have been happy and playing, but half eaten food and dirty dishes all over the kitchen humiliates me (when other people see it, I'm perfectly comfortable with it:) ).

Lesli said...

I can assure you my house is never perfect!!! I learned a long time ago - if I have spent time with my children and had a positive day - it was a good day and I was blessed!!! Just keep enjoying the kids - that's what they will remember!

Petra said...

Thanks for posting these pics...!!
It's so good to see one is not alone, living with the discrepancy of perfectionism and not having the time to adhere to it in everyday life...
And I don't even have one child, be assured my appartment looks ten times worse! :-)

Jona Giammalva said...

That looks like my kitchen and table! I have 5 kids and homeschool and I'm never caught up, ever. I won't even start on my laundry situation.

I try to keep the front room tidy just so it makes a good first impression (but I don't let anybody past that room!).

Carmell said...

gurl you are not alone!!! i have 5 kids and 2 go to school (will be 3 in school next year) and my house never stays clean for more than an hour. i smiled when i saw your pictures cause your house is no where near as bad as mine and you have more than i do. but then again i have given up on trying and say forget it. AND you home school!! that means you have all your kids with you 24/7. no break. i don't think i could do that! i feel a little better now! thanks!

Tami in OH said...

You are definitely not alone! I have 2 lo's ages 3 (almost 4) and 1 (going on 2) - I don't sew, but I am a papercrafter/stamper and I know exactly what you mean --- I want to be able to work on my hobby to get some "down" time in, but then my house goes into dis-array. It's a matter of choices and often after my kids and my craft, the house suffers, but then I will have a day to catch up and it looks nice for 5 minutes before the chaos ensues again! :) You are in good company!

Tine said...

LOL! I can't believe I haven't seen this post before. I have that same vision of blogland friends :-) Well, not you anymore. LOL! And I am so happy yo know, that I'm not the only one ;-)
Our home looks awful if I'm not on top of it all of the time -and really! Who wants to spend the entire day cleaning?!

Home's Jewels said...

Woo-hoo!!!! Yea, a real honest-to-goodness lived-in house! LOVE IT!!!

(reading your old posts obviously)