No, I Don't Have It All Together! . . . And Neither Should You.

It is 11:30pm. I just finished most of the dishes (not all because the dishwasher was full and there was not enough room on the drying rack for the rest), picked up some toys that did not get cleaned up earlier, packed my diaper bag for tomorrow, changed into pj's and will probably be up for at least another hour since I decided to write this post. I occasionally have people comment to me "You have it all together." or "You're so organized" or my personal favorite "How do you do it all?!" (I really roll my eyes at that one!) The fact is I do not have it all together, I am not as organized as you'd think I would be or as much as I desire to be, and I do not do it all. "But you're the Neat Doctor!" you may be thinking. Yes, I do love organization & simplification. But I am human, and have a life and 2 little kids. If you walked in my house at any given moment you are bound to find something to question my organization skills. I do have many things that are clean, organized, and streamlined in my home & routines, but I am not where I want to be. Notice I used the word "want" and not "need." I think I am exactly where I "need" to be. Although, it has taken some times of prayer & reflection to realize that.

Tonight I am taking some time to highlight things I am not on top of. I think it is healthy for us to admit places in our lives where we are weak, need some work, and highlight our ducks that have fallen out of line. Highlighting our strengths comes naturally. Many of us post on Facebook what an awesome dinner we just made, how we lost 5lbs this week, or post pictures of our fun adventures. I would like to challenge you to share some things you need some polishing on. It is good for us to know & acknowledge that we are not perfect, we're all in this together, and to laugh together at the areas where we often stumble.

So here goes. I'll even post some pictures!

1) My laundry piles are really rediculously high right now. I'm trying to do at least one load a day, but somehow it got out of hand. I even had to break into my small underwear pile from before my pregnancy because I ran out. I still have 17lbs to lose to fit in those again. Nothing like tight underwear to make your day a little less comfortable!

2) My dining table is a pile of paperwork & clutter. This is a picture from 2 weeks ago, but it's not much different now. In fact, I think it's a little worse. I keep saying that one of these nights I'll tackle it - especially all the coupons & paperwork I need to purge. But, somehow it becomes late again & I'm stuck in a big whirlwind of life circling the table all day & just adding to the pile. I am hoping my little efforts will dwindle it down soon. Usually when something starts to bug me enough, I just have to block some extra time out to just finish it.

3. I have a few more clutter hot spots in my home. My desk has paperwork I need to go through and some empty wipes wrappers with codes to be entered. Our hallway still as stuff from our office (which we moved there over a year ago when we turned our office into our son's room) that has yet to be gone through & organized. My hall is filled with stuff I am in the process of getting rid of. In the corner of my bedroom is a pile of Christmas gifts covered with towels so my kids don't see them. My plan is to wrap them and store them in the garage. But somehow they have been sitting there since July.

4. My Kitchen often looks like this, with it only being clean for about 8 hours as I sleep.

5. I make mistakes with my scheduling. The other day I thought it was odd that the class I take with my son was not on my calendar. So I typed it back in. Thank goodness someone mentioned today that Thursday is a holiday & there would be no class. Oops. Yeah, I would have showed up wondering where everyone was.

6. As much as I try to keep things clean & sanitized, my shower has sadly taken a downward plunge. I cleaned it a little the other day, but it needs more than a little cleaning. It's just a task I hate doing, so it goes undone until I cannot stand it!

I am soooo tired right now. In fact, I have nodded off about 5 times while proofing this! But, I think this has been really therapeutic writing this. There are many more things I am not on top of right now. Will I ever get those things done? Yes, eventually one day they will be done. Although not at the same time like I so desire. And that's the way it's gotta be.