• What Do You See – a Mess or a Race Track?!

    After lunch one Sunday the girls were instructed to pick up the newspaper after they were finished looking at it while Jake and I worked for a few minutes on our schedules for the upcoming week.  After about thirty minutes or so I came back into the kitchen and this is what I saw…..my first thought was “seriously, what a huge mess!”  Instead of picking up the papers they had spread all of them over the kitchen and dining room floors.  When asked as to why they didn’t pick “up” the newspaper they told me “Well we decided that it would make a great race track!”

    Although the mess was big I had to hold back from laughing.  It was a pretty cool looking race track even if it was a mess.    They were quite proud of their “track”.  So despite the fact the kitchen and dining room looked like they were carpeted with newspaper and ads I decided to let them enjoy it for the afternoon as long as they would pick it up before we left for Awana that evening.

    The silly part is that they had a blast with the newspaper.  Who would have ever thought that a newspaper could provide so much entertainment.  They rebuilt the roads several times, added new vehicles, used it as a walking track, and several other silly things all in that one afternoon.  In a matter of hours that newspaper got more love and provided more entertainment then all the other newspapers we have ever received put together.  And the best part, when asked to pick it up (the second time) the girls did it happily and in a matter of a couple of minutes.

    So was it worth me having to endure a messy house for a few hours?  Absolutely!  The girls had fun, they used their imaginations, were creative, and played well together.  The problem is I don’t always “react” well when I see a mess someone in my family has created whether intentionally or unintentionally.  Sometimes I am more worried about the mess they are making that I don’t allow them to just have fun.  Yes, having a clean has is important but if the house is always perfect then a race track would never happen.

    It was worth a temporary messy house to hear the girls giggling together over a silly newspaper converted into a race track.  Thankfully this time around I gave into just enjoying the fun moment and waited to clean up the mess later.  What do you see – the mess or the race track?

  • Mom’s BIG Mess!

    Yes, Mom makes messes too.  Last Wednesday while I was cooking dinner for our church Community Group I made the biggest mess my kitchen’s ever seen.   I couldn’t blame anyone else either (Jake and the girls were innocent), it was completely my fault.  I decided as I was cooking my lasagna sauce to make a quick trip out to the garden and pull a few more pieces of lettuce for dinner that night.  While outside I got distracted and did a few “extra” small chores before heading back into the house.

    Lasagna Sauce EVERYWHERE!

    As soon as I stepped into the house I could see the RED in the kitchen!  Instead of turning the burner down I turned it up and the sauce exploded everywhere!  I had sauce from the floor to ceiling, stove to refrigerator, and on the walls, cabinets, and counter tops.  Of course the counter was loaded with stuff, including Wednesday’s mail (some bills will be sent with extra “color” this month).  I spent the next hour scrubbing up the red splattered kitchen.  Before the mess I was ahead of schedule, we made it to the event just a few minutes late.  For a few days I was still finding random spots of red splatter marks.  Oh well……guess it was great lesson learned and my kitchen got some good scrubbing in the process.