Clutter Goggles

Back when we were just 2, our house was neat and tidy all the time. I hated clutter, things had to be organized and kept that way! I vividly recall visiting the house of a friend who had a small baby, and her house was a disaster. Piles of laundry every where, dishes all over the place, pop cans on the coffee table etc. Upon leaving her home I turned to my new husband and said " Is our house going to look like that when we have kids?" He bluntly responded, " No, but it won't look like it does now!"
A few years later, along came Liam, and I did my best to keep the house clean and tidy, and I did a pretty good job. Laundry was put away in a timely manner, dishes were washed, toys put away at the end of the day.  Then shortly after Liam turned 1, a little + sign appeared on the dollar store pregnancy test, and things went down hill from there.
Dealing with a toddler and the first trimester exhaustion lead to things getting pushed aside for a much needed afternoon nap, and an early bed time. As the months went on and my belly got bigger, keeping the house tidy wasn't that easy any more.
Now with 2 very active boys I have admitted defeat! The play area in the living room looks like a bomb exploded in a toy store, and some of those toys have migrated to other parts of the house. There are baskets of laundry that don't get put away for days. Piles of mail and paper work collect in several places, just out of reach of curious, destructive little hands. Some nights dinner dishes get left until the next day (thank goodness for dishwashers!)
Any tidying I do is very quickly undone. It's almost like trying to clean up during a hurricane. And when you know another hurricane is coming the next day, it's almost not worth it to clean up the debris.
Yet even with all the chaos and clutter in my home, there are things I now do several times a day, that I would have done maybe a few times a week before. Sweeping the kitchen floor after each meals is now a neccesity and laundry is a daily activity, otherwise it would take over!
My home is no longer at the standard it would have been before we had kids, and I accept that, but I still do a mad dash before company comes over to make it look decent. We recently had some people over, and one "compliment" I received was how great it was that we had a dedicated toy area for the boys, and how great it was that we didn't care if it was a mess. Although this was a bit of a back-handed compliment, I just smiled. People without kids don't seem to get it. It's just like you ability to tune-out a screaming child when out somewhere, you adapt when you become a parent. Certain things become less important to make way for new priorities. And soon you won't even notice the clutter, that in the past would have all had proper homes.
So don't come over and notice the disarray in my home, notice the two boys who have a wonderful space to explore and play, and a mom who spends time with them rather than time with the cleaning products.