Because not every day is Disney...

When perusing Mommy blogs, it's easy to imagine that everybody else's life is picture perfect. Perhaps we post these smiley photos to bring us back to a happy place when reality looks like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Note the missing sheets in these next pics. 2 out of 3 managed to wet the bed.

Sigh.  These are the sights I woke up to this morning. Definitely not Disney.

While I usually try to pick up the house in the evening, yesterday was so awful that I just crawled into bed, grateful that the day was finally over.  I'd deal with the aftermath in the morning. Besides, with Jason out of town, who'd care?

Sensing that I needed more posting material, during the two minutes it took to shoot a few photos, Eli decided to add to the drama with this:

Talia came downstairs (because she apparently thinks that my bed is hers), and I noticed this:

Good thing bangs are in style.

A few hours later, I finally managed to get the kitchen clean enough to start sewing on some Girl Scout patches. Ten grubby, grabby fingers, and the floor looked like this: (In case you can't tell, those are pins.)

In Eli's defense, he did try to clean up. I reassigned him to a different task when he started to complain, "Owie! Owie! Owie!"

You know, when it comes to children, I think the only thing separating an aggravating mess from an endearing one is time. When downloading this photo card, I rediscovered a forgotten moment when the girls turned our kitchen floor into a swimming pool for their My Little Pony. Too cute--but only in retrospect.

They may leave trails of disorder, but they do try to pick up as well--at least occasionally.

So messes happen, and our home is no Disney castle. In the end, I guess that's okay. After all, just keeping up with every day life can be, well, exhausting.