Priorities

Today I have been reminded once again of something very important. We have had a very fun and busy August - and summer - of which I'll have to blog about soon. Saturday we had a great family get together at our house. I had a blast and love doing this, and hope to do it again soon. But Saturday morning I was already a little low on time compared to what we wanted to do, but most of all, I could have done my chores and chose not to. Instead I played with my kids that morning and went to the store with them and their dad. I figured I cleaned most of the house - so that was good enough.

Oh my. How embarrassed I was when I saw the condition of our guest bathroom (that my kids use) on monday morning. Aaron's chore is bathrooms, since I can't now, due to fumes. But that cleaning only takes place if I hand him the cleaning supplies and say please do it now. Anyways, when I saw the condition of the bathroom - and finished wiping it down and cleaning up I was disgusted with myself. How could I have had such a filthy bathroom when I had company? All morning I vigorously scrubbed every corner of my kitchen, table, chairs, floors, carpets, fridge - you name it. Followed by me weeding the front yard - sadly, it had accumulated enough weeds, that I really needed to do it.

As I came back inside, unable to stand straight and layed on the living room floor I saw a sign. A sign that I put on my wall for a reason. I needed the reminder today. It reads "The most important things in life are not things." I almost cried. No I did not completely deprive my house of cleanliness - I would go crazy and never relax if my house was always dirty. But the little things - that piled up - piled up because I was spending time with the things that matter most in life - my kids. This summer rather than staying inside cleaning, we have spent almost all day playing outside somewhere, or doing something together. Those things are priceless. That's what matters most.

So, although I'm still embarrassed at how bad my bathroom truly was (sorry fam), My regret is now minimized by thinking of all the fun memories I have made with my kids - and the reassurance that with cooler weather, maybe those little things will get cleaned. Forget the baseboards - next week. Right now we're going to go make little monkeys for preschool.