How Do You Moms Do It?

   Confession Time: I am NOT a very good housekeeper. I like to think I am. I like to have grand ideas about what my house should look like. But, when push come to shove, my house quickly gets untidy, disorganized, and cluttered. Not dirty, but not magazine perfect either. And it only gets worse when something comes up in the weekly schedule...like, say, being sick. 

   Yes, this past week I had every Mom's worst nightmare: the flu. And not just the "ugh I feel ill" flu....but the violent kind (hope that's not TMI). My house, which was in great shape (read: clothes in the laundry process (i.e. still needing to be folded), house vacuumed, meals planned, groceries done, bathroom sparkly, kids rooms organized and tidy) just crumpled. Two days of me shuffling along behind the kids making sure they were fed, diapers changed, dressed, and entertained made for no time to keep up with the folding, dishes, and vacuuming (which, lets be honest, is a three-times-a-day thing!). In the spirit of honesty and truth - here are some picture of my disaster home. 

Yes, all of these pictures were taken from my spot on the couch. My kids are napping...;)!

   I am going to follow up these truth-pictures with these questions: How do you Moms do it? What am I missing? Is there a 'sickness genie' that comes and keeps things scheduled while us sicko moms take the craved minutes on the couch (few and far between)? 

   These pictures are embarrassing to me. So, you may ask, why do it? Because I am part of a wonderful group of ladies (here's looking at you, you 500! (don't know what I mean? Read here)) who have raised the issue of truths. Truths as it pertains to our homes, our lives, our decorating skills, our school choices, our feeding habits and the size of our jeans. After an eye-opening discussion with these fellow-launchers I was challenged to be "real". To show how it really is...and to reach out for help. So, all you wonder moms: how do you do it? Lol. Being sick has got to be one of the truly worst things at this stage in my life.  

Living Room Progress...

   I come back after a bit of a "blog break" to excitedly exclaim, "We are making progress!!". Things have been happening over here in the Lodder household! The front entrance/closet area is almost completed, the basement has a coat of paint and is waiting on some furniture/wall hangings, and (drum roll please) we now have pictures in the empty frames that have been gracing our living room wall for the past 4 months! Yay!
   I finally took the plunge and ordered some photo prints last week. I had been staring at the empty frames for much.too.long. I wanted to make sure that I picked the "perfect" combination of prints (taking into account colours, people in the photo, etc. etc. etc.) and I had been finding this decision making process very overwhelming! I did have a general idea of what I wanted though, and so I took the leap and ordered the prints.
   I used photos from two shoots that we had last fall. One of just our family by the very talented Katherine M. Vintage Photography. And another shoot of Mark's entire family done by the also very talented Mauve Photography. I loved how all the pictures turned out - they printed great!
   Anyways, without further ado, here are some recent pictures of our current Living Room Area (our main floor is one large open concept space...). I love how this area is coming along. I am enjoying the process of making this space (and all the spaces) our home - a comfortable place to be with the people I love!

   On a side note: that is the coffee table that the hubs and I DIYed. Does anyone have any advice on how to protect a white table top? I painted it with Martha Stewart Chalk Paint (from Michaels) and used her wax to protect it. Now, I only did one layer of wax....perhaps putting a couple more layers would be better? It has just gotten stained really quickly and now my beautiful white table top has brownish splotches all over it:(.
   And, here's a close up of my gallery wall! I love using the ribba frame ledges from Ikea because it allows me to rearrange and change things up every so often (without asking Mark to pull out some mud and paint to fix all the nail holes! You're welcome honey!! :D).