There is an orange sippy cup with a green lid lying on the floor outside of my bedroom door. Little tufts of cat hair dot the carpet up there. I should probably vacuum, but I’d rather take Oliver to the park instead.
I taped a picture of a teddy bear Julia drew for me at school on my closet door, so I can look at it every day. There are three half-full bottles of water sitting on my night table, four books, two pens, a notebook and a pink plastic princess bracelet.
There’s so much crap on top my dresser I can barely see the surface.
A Little Tykes sander has been sitting on the shelf in the upstairs bathroom for weeks; a copy of I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! is mixed in among the New Yorkers and Rolling Stones on the magazine rack.
I’m pretty sure there’s a load of laundry in the dryer from yesterday.
There are stickers all over the house – on the floors, the fridge door handle, the bathroom floor, on Julia’s wall…I pick them off our socks when I start a load of laundry and peel them from the inside of the dryer, where they’ve melted and are stuck, firmly.
Various works of construction paper art are held up by ladybug magnets on my fridge. There are fingerprints all over the patio doors, scuffs on the walls and I think that’s strawberry jelly on the floor by my feet.
Chances are high there’s cat shit on the basement floor; Chewy just meandered into the kitchen, looking smug and guilty.
I opened the fridge this morning to get the margarine and found Oliver’s Elmo phone sitting on top of a bag of yellow beans. And from where I’m sitting I can see him in the den, picking his nose and wiping boogers on the arm of the couch.
I’ve never felt more at home than I do here, in this house.
:: . ::
Ack! I completely forgot to mention that there is a new post up at the BFF website – check it out if you're planning on – or thinking about – going!
43 Comments, Comment or Ping
Sounds just like my house, only minus the cat shit. I’m allergic to cats. And we have the crumb confetti everywhere, which gets all stuck to your feet and tracked everywhere and crunches when you walk.
April 3rd, 2008
Home is where the cat shits!!
What a beautiful post it gave a real insight to your life – all about your family! i’m glad you are happy in your new home i know it was a tough move for you, leaving your mums house behind xxx
April 3rd, 2008
We always seem to gather more and more things, junk strewn everywhere. And then, about once a month, I get it in my head to GET RID! of everything. Thus, when I am looking for something important, it cannot be found.
You would think I would learn my lesson to clean up a little each day, but no. I have more important things to do. Like play with my boy.
April 3rd, 2008
Those magnets wouldn’t be small, glass ladybugs about the size of a dime, by any chance, would they?
And the stickers? Oh.My.God! Try being a somewhat hairy-armed italian man with a daughter who has a penchant for applying them to skin. If only I could get them on my socks!
April 3rd, 2008
Sounds EXACTLY like my house, its frightening. Sometimes the horror on the faces of our childless friends is worth the mess.
“Chances are high there’s cat shit on the basement floor; Chewy just meandered into the kitchen, looking smug and guilty.”
OMG, I died!! My dirty stupid cat will shit or piss on ANYTHING that is left on the basement floor – like it’s his domain or something. Stupid bugger.
April 3rd, 2008
i caught my big fat cat peeing in the corner of my front room the other day for no damn good reason. at least your cat has a reason.
you know in a way, this post made me look forward to my booger pickers coming to visit this weekend.
April 3rd, 2008
Wowzers… it is like you stepped inside my house. I found a new sticker on the leg of my new dinning room table. Now I have to google the proper way to remove stickers from wood. :) Great post!
April 3rd, 2008
Hee hee – sounds… cozy. ;)
April 3rd, 2008
The end table next to “my seat” on the couch has four binkies, two boxes of wet wipes (one empty of wipes and instead containing a nose/brain sucker, some butt ointment, and a few q-tips), a box of Kleenex, the lamp, and five remotes.
I’m pretty sure my house is just as cozy as yours sounds. Although I started to write more, but I think I’ll turn the rest of this into a post. Thx for the idea!
April 3rd, 2008
Sounds exactly like my house…only cleaner.
April 3rd, 2008
Laundry from YESTERDAY???? Try LAST WEEK! Your house sounds suspiciously like my house, which has been quite an adjustment for an OCD person like me. I love your sentiment, though, about how you would rather take O to the park.
April 3rd, 2008
i love this post.
and the stickers! in the machine and the dryer! kill me!
April 3rd, 2008
I have no standards anymore, either. Or at least, they are ones like, “If a wash has sat wet in the machine for less than 24 hours, it’s okay to just bung it in the dryer and carry on like nothing happened.” and now, things like, if you’re too sick to lean over the bathtub and scrub it, tough cookies, it will hafta wait.
April 3rd, 2008
Yes.
To all of it.
And if it’s not cat shit in the living room, it’s barf in the dining room.
April 3rd, 2008
You have reached a level of acceptance and presence I seek to reach. Take an A.
April 3rd, 2008
I can identify with lots. Especially the booger-wiping.
April 3rd, 2008
Ohhhhh that just sounds like a haven in the storm it does.
April 3rd, 2008
It sounds like a beautiful house.
I’m jealous.
I can’t wait for that!
:D
April 3rd, 2008
Sounds like you’re at my house.
April 3rd, 2008
*whew* We do have similar houses! ;) (course you would have to add A LOT more pet hair to be just like mine…lol)
April 3rd, 2008
get out of my house, woman. i say: get out!
unless you’re cooking and drinking with me. because clearly, you live in my house!
April 3rd, 2008
When I look at movies of our house when our kids were little I don’t see the mess and the confusion. I see a house filled with stimulating toys, projects yet unfinished, juice boxes on the counter, music in the background. I see the book I was reading and videos the kids were watching. Back then I used to get easily bogged down in despair because things weren’t perfect. Now I look at those things and see an oasis of HAPPY. Why couldn’t I see past the scattered Legos and leftover breakfasts on thie high chair? I don’t know. But I see it now. I really do.
April 3rd, 2008
I know the feeling. Sounds like our house. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
April 3rd, 2008
Thank you, for sharing and for reminding me that I’m not the only one. I long for a clean, neat house, but it hasn’t shown up yet. I sorta quit waiting a while back. I guess I’m just stuck with what I have. Which is cozy, messy, smells like a cat box, sometimes.
April 3rd, 2008
yes these are what makes a house a home.
April 3rd, 2008
LOL – sounds like my house! On my bedside table every night you will find a sippy cup of juice just in case the preschooler wakes up. Beside me sits a pair of baby banz sunglasses, a 1/2 eaten cupcake and two empty containers of playdoh – I wonder where the playdoh is?
Visit me @ http://www.momontherun.net
April 3rd, 2008
you sound happy.
I like that.
April 3rd, 2008
i know i have already commented but i just saw how many of you other comment people have trouble with stickers -dab baby oil on top leave it for 10 minutes and then it should just peel off – this even works with the metallic ones and then for the sticky residue sprinkle talc over and then just brush away you can also repeat the baby oilstage for really tough residue Hope this helps
April 4th, 2008
my 5 are all older so the debris is different, but like so many of your other commenters, i consider that evidence of a life well-lives. LOVED this post!
April 4th, 2008
How about your windows? My kids used to lick them (they still do after they hit them with a snowball). Loved the imagery you conjured up.
Hugs,
a.
April 4th, 2008
Nice slice of life. Perhaps I’ll post something similar. Because when I’m feeling creatively defeated I find it’s easiest to steal.
April 4th, 2008
I am so relieved that my house is not the only mess out there. Of course, my friends all say the same, but they clean up before I come over, so part of me doesn’t believe it.
April 4th, 2008
Van sent me here. I’m thankful he did. I like it here, much the same way you love being home with the cat shit, boogers and jelly stains. It just feels real. Hope you’ll stop by sometime.
April 4th, 2008
I love you. You can come visit my house any day. You’d be at home here too.
April 4th, 2008
It sounds like a true home, full of life’s messes and life’s joys and love.
April 4th, 2008
Bonus if there’s cat shit and vomit from when the cat tries to eat its shit and gets sick.
I so hear you… my house is my home, regardless of how long it’s been since I’ve vacuumed and how long those diapers have sat in the bathroom garbage. Of course, I would take my house clean over dirty, as long as it was someone else doing the cleaning!
April 4th, 2008
i never realized until I lost my kids, just how much i would miss those “out of place items” which arent out of place at all, they simply represent a house with people who are happier, and have better things to do.
April 4th, 2008
Thank you for this post. Not only for its simple beauty and honesty, but because it suggested to me that perhaps one of my kids, and not my husband, is the one leaving the boogers on the shower tile. I forgot they used our shower last night. Now I won’t have to kill my husband, and what a relief that will be to him.
April 4th, 2008
I think it sounds perfect.
Sincerely.
April 5th, 2008
Sounds exactly like my house. Except where are your empty bottles of bourbon?
April 6th, 2008
This is precisely what I needed to read in this moment. I thank you.
April 6th, 2008
That’s what my house would be like if I didn’t live with an anal retentive freak. His influence is only slightly noticeable at the moment, though. ;)
April 6th, 2008
Add some tortilla ships ground into the living room rug, and you have come close to capturing my house. Oh the glory.
April 6th, 2008
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