2015-08-11 09.28.57-1

 I don’t think I have ever…ever…known a kid to be able to tear up a room…or multiple rooms as quickly as my daughter. The picture above was taken a few months ago, but she still does the same thing daily. It’s maddening. I don’t know how one little girl can destroy a house or a room so quickly?

I am not a clean person. As a matter of fact I struggle with keeping a neat house. I’m not good at it. I can blame others, but the bottom line is that I will choose to do most anything else other than to clean. That being said, I never could imagine how much more difficult it is to keep my house neat with Tessa in the picture. Picture this….we all have crazy mornings. Everyone knows it’s not easy to get kids dressed and out the door in a timely fashion. But for me, as I run around the house trying to get snacks and juice, and shoes on….behind me is Tessa. Behind me in the kitchen is my daughter throwing food out the pantry, or cups out of the cabinet or bags out of the cupboard. I sigh frustrated because at that very moment I don’t have time to follow behind her to pick it up. We then move to the front of the house where coats and hats need to be put on. There, as I help my son she is knocking picture frames off the shelf, pillows off the couch. Sounds great right? The funny thing is she isn’t trying to be bad….she literally is a tornado and things just fall in her path!

In those moments I don’t have time to pick up after her. We have places to be! Even if I did have a moment to put things back in the kitchen it just would be somewhere else in the house that things were being knocked down. So I quit. I quit because it’s just easier to set it all back at the end of the day. The reset. Each night I walk around and try to put things back together. If you come to my house anywhere prior to 7:00 that is what you will find…disaster.

I’m sure I should stop her and reprimand, but I don’t always have in me. Pick your battles right? Hey….if you tell her to clean it up she tries? That’s something right?

So I quit. Maybe I will have a clean house in a few years. For now, in the thick of it I will accept disaster. I’m not proud but it’s how it is. My tiny tornado will hopefully learn that making a mess isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. A girl can dream right?