My Favorite Room

When the first of May rolls around, we will have officially lived in our Kentucky home for nine months.  Nine already!  I can hardly believe it... where does the time go?  And as I scrolled through my blog posts over these past many months, I realized that while I said I would post pictures of the inside of our home here, I never did.  The truth is, I've been waiting for some finishing touches to be put up, the rooms to be clean, and the lighting to be perfect, which means only being able to photograph these rooms during the daylight hours.  So here I am, nine months later... and those "finishing touches," which really probably only include window treatments?  Non-existent.  And over these nine months, has any room really been clean for more than five minutesduring the day?  C'mon!  I have a two-year old... enough said.  And newsflash: he pulls out every single toy that he has whether he plans to play with it or not.  During daylight hours.  Which mean, the lighting is always bad when my house is "photo-worthy."  But hey... that's real life, right?

As much as I love reading blogs and keeping up with friends via Facebook, there is a dangerous side to it, too.  As we peek into other people's lives, we see their perfectly decorated and clean homes, their perfectly styled hair and outfit, and wonder to ourselves if we're somehow falling behind.  At least I do at times.  Often if the blogger does not have children I think to myself, "we'll see if she 'has it all together' after kids."  Isn't that terrible?  And I think that this is why for nine months I've been meaning to do a house post, and for nine months my house never looks "perfect enough" for the Internet.  Because although I am a very neat person (just ask my husband... it drives him nuts sometimes!) the reality of our busy lives is a house that looks like this:

The living room on a typical day... decor courtesy of Jake and Lilly:

The dining room... otherwise known as the catch-all for mail, the diaper bag, Josh's work stuff, etc.

 Just a small glimpse into our bedroom.  This is our bedside table and yes, you counted correctly: there are FIVE dirty diapers sitting there.  Don't judge me.  We're going on seven months of waking up in the middle of the night and this is the best I can do!

And Jake's bedroom floor- about ten minutes after I put everything away.

I love my home, I really do.  And if I had it my way, it would look like the page of a magazine everyday.  I have ideas upon ideas of what each room would ideally look like, and even see the final product in my head, which can torture me sometimes since I don't have the time or disposible income to make it happen.  But you know what?  Our house is a mess and I'm happy.  My kids are happy.  And sometimes just letting it go for a few days to have some extra time to sit on the floor and play with my two cuties is worth it.

With all that being said, however, last week the stars aligned, pigs flew, and the kids' room was clean and "perfect" enough for a photo opp.  Their room is always my favorite, no matter what house we live in, just because it's so happy and cute.  This home is a bit smaller, so Jake and Lil share one, but we have yet to see if that experiement scenario is going to work since she's never actually slept all night in there.  Only time will tell.  So since it was the miracle of all miracles, I had to document my (and Jake and Lilly's) happy place:

How much do Jake and Lilly's grandpa's rock?  My dad made the crib (years ago for my nephews actually and it's still solid as a rock) and Josh's dad made the toddler bed.  I hope that Jake gets those genes!  I could put him to work someday on all of these ideas in my head!

The names originally hung above the beds they slept in... and then we rearranged the room.  See?  Even when you get things just "perfect" something happens to change all that!  Someday I'll fix it... maybe.

I have to laugh because when I rushed to take these pictures, knowing my hard work could be destroyed at any moment, my SD card was missing from my nice camera, which is still a mystery to me.  So, I had to pull out the trusty iPhone.  Typical.

I posted this because on the days that you don't feel perfect enough and Pinterest ideas are depressing you (hence why I don't Pinterest!), I hope that you can come here and be reminded that we're really all in the same boat.  Everyone has their own mess, their own reality, their own junk they are dealing with, despite how perfect it looks from the outside.  I think a lot of people feel this way about their relationship with God.  They're waiting to get their problems all straightened out, their junk cleared up, and figure out how to be "good enough" to start living for Him.  They put on their fancy clothes and dress up the outside before going to church, but the inside is in complete disarray.  And I just want to tell you that it's never going to happen.  God doesn't need you to be "good enough."  God definitely doesn't need you to be perfect, and actually knows that it's impossible!  He created you... of course he knows that!  He just needs you to come to him and admit that you can't do it alone.  You can't strive to be better without His help, and that's what He's there for.  And when I remember that simple fact, the messes in my life don't seem to bother me so much.  He'll get me through it.  He hasn't let me down yet, and I know He never will.