Little Messes

My girls are wonderful.  They really are.

However, they are hands-down the messiest people in our home.

As they grow and mature, the messes change; from dress-up clothes, dolls and toys,  to papers, drawings, glue, stickers and glitter.  Then on to teenage 'dress-up' clothes along with shoes and purses, make up and nail polish.
Girls simply have lots of STUFF.

Take my littlest girl for example- I began to notice the other day the small piles of things in each room of the house.   I noticed that each and every pile belonged to the same person.  A little blonde-haired, green-eyed girl.

  A little girl who, at that very moment, was working on another project.  She was using cardboard, scissors, glue, markers and glitter to create 'I love you' signs for her dad and I.   Signs that she then propped up on our nightstands in order to remind us of her love every day.

How can you not simply adore a child like that? 

So I try to ignore her things strewn about the house....until they begin to take over or we have to show our home, whichever comes first.

In the meantime, this is how the conversations go:

G: "Momma, have you seen my boots?"   Me: 'Which boots, honey?"   G: "My cowboy boots."
Me: "Look in my bedroom- and your hat's in there, too, by the way."

 
Me: "Also, you left your Ugg boots and sweatshirt in the office, under the piano."

"And your socks are on my bathroom floor."

G:  < laughing > "Thanks!"

Later the same day....

G: "Momma, are you still watching my lizards and frogs  for me?  Where'd you put 'em? "

Me: " Sorry- I couldn't keep watching them for you- I had to make dinner.  I set them in the basket of your stuff that needs to be put away downstairs."  

 " And would you please grab your baseball mitt and other things off the chair in the office  and put them away, too?"

 "And while you're at it, could you gather the things you left on my bathroom counter?"


G: "What things?  I don't remember putting anything in there.  It's not my stuff."


Me: " Well, I'm pretty sure they're yours.  I saw your silly bands, your dragon hourglass you got at the yard sale, your pink tin of  jewelry and your horse book."

G: "Yep, those are mine!"



I know that someday I will no longer have these little 'messes' throughout my house.  
Someday, this little girl will be grown....all too soon.

 So I really don't mind telling her, when she asks if I've seen her pink bag, that if it's the one with the Junie B. Jones sticker on it, it's downstairs in the school room.

And when I go to bed at night, I'm reminded of the truly pure love of an eight year old girl.