This is how it looks around Here.

A couple of days ago I had an unexpected afternoon

without my children (gone to play with friends!) and

instead of using the time to catch up on the old to-do list,

 I just grabbed my camera bag and jumped in my car.

Just like that.

One hour.

Two cameras.

Brilliant.

This is where I live.

What are you waiting for?

Let them Play.

Ok, not everyone will be able to handle these images

so I'm giving you fair warning. If you a a minimalist/design/organizational freak/genius

 you might want to leave now. These images may

 be disturbing for you and, once seen, you can't 'un-see' them.

 OK? I am showing you a very messy part of my house.

So go, if you have to.

This post is here to serve as a reminder for myself,

 and other mums like me, over the school holiday (and any other time, really).

You see, I am a messy person by my very nature.

I am a wanna-be organized person.

But I'm very, very not.

And I have a great fear of passing the messy/unorganized/clutter gene on to my kids. So this often sees me getting really uptight when they're not listening, and they're not putting their stuff away.

You know, the yelling kind of uptight.

Where you yell really productive stuff at them like

"You never listen to me!"

&

"Put your stuff away!"

oh,

&

my favourite
 {apparently}

"HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU?!!"

Has pretty much a 100% failure rate in my experience.

Oh, and if you're reading this thinking that I actually

 have a solution for any of this then I am so sorry, I totally do not.

Like I said this is to serve as a reminder for myself,

 and maybe a sort of community service announcement.

An announcement that just says sometimes you've

 just got to let it go.

Let. It. Go.

When I stand in my kitchen doing the dishes, which

 seems to be an awful lot of the time, this is what I see when

 I turn left. It's the kids space.

There are hula hoops hanging from the ceiling,

 two little desks at the window, two little chairs which belong somewhere else entirely, a cupboard which holds

 arty- farty stuff for little arty-fartsters.

As you can see, there is also a truck-load of other assorted crap.

So as we get closer, you can see more and more 'stuff'.

Like the football socks hanging over the back of the old genoa lounge chair, which also has some kind of artwork/random

 piece of paper {?} sticky-taped to the back of it.

There are scissors on the arm of the chair also.
I don't know if you'll be able to see them
but trust me, they're there.

Because, sadly, my children suffer from domestic deafness

 {I know, so awful, probably something I ate while I was pregnant}

 and apparently didn't hear me the first 50 times I explained my reasons for wanting the scissors returned to their spot.

Here's an elevated view for you.

Note my curtains which need to be shortened as they are just too long to be there where the desks are, but I have chosen, instead, to just, kind of, knot them up like that.

Nice.

My kids love cupboards because you can just

 open those doors up and pull all that stuff out!!

Closing cupboard doors is completely optional and not practiced.

They're playing some kind of version of 'snap' here, using, ahem, old scrapbooking supplies of some sort, I believe.

I can't be too sure because I was far more focused on the fact that they were doing something together and not fighting for such an extended period of time. A good ten minutes, I think.

Not long after I took the picture below it degenerated back to normal........grizzling and the throwing around of kid swear words such as dumb head, and idiot.

Anyway. My point is that while we would all love to have immaculate, organized, designer homes that are always tidy and never ever messy, it's not always realistic and we need to remind ourselves of that every now and then.

If your kids are doin' ok, and they're happy,

 then give yourself a break.

Because all that crap on the floor is still going to be there tomorrow, whether it gets picked up now or not.

It'll be back.

Now, of course I'm not saying it's ok to let it all go and let your home turn into some kind of rodent filled hovel,
but sometimes,
just try,
to not stress about the mess.

Look at the bigger picture
 and see what you've really got in front of you.

Just lately.

Just lately, as always, we've been buying as much of our fresh produce as possible locally.

We're lucky enough to have a little road side stall not too far away from us, and while the honesty box may be soldered down and padlocked.......it's still nice to know they're still around.

{once you taste a home grown carrot, like one of these, you will never eat a store bought one again. I never even realised what carrots were supposed to taste like until I discovered these. so. much. flavour.}

Just lately, I am struggling to keep on running. But I do keep on running. My messed up, mumble-jumbled head needs me to keep running. It's a head clearer.

Just lately we've been setting up mud pie kitchens at Grandmas' dam.

........and stripping off, hanging clothes in the trees and going for a {very} quick dip in Grandmas' dam.

Just lately, we've been hanging out at the library.........still.

And waxing more thread {oh, and untangling thread, lots of untangling}

...........to make more books. Still loving doing that.

Just lately, I've been really loving the quaint way the ladies at the op shop bundle up the sheets/fabric for sale. Just a strip of fabric torn to tie it all together.

Just lately, and not something I do all the time, I've been taking self portraits in public toilets while waiting for my son to get moving, so I could show you that I actually did finish off those wrist warmers I started knitting, ah, a long time ago.