wabi-sabi, or good enough

one of my favorite features in good housekeeping magazine is a small column called good/good enough.  each month, the column tackles a task or problem two ways - the "correct but time consuming way", or the "quick and dirty" way.  i often chuckle and try to decide which way i'd go - fix it and forget it, or take my time and do it right.

i've discovered, over the past year, that sometimes, "good enough" will have to do.  with twins and a big kid, i don't always have time to have everything picture perfect.  as someone who is extremely anal retentive, it's hard for me to let go of the perfect, but i am learning wabi-sabi, or the acceptance that nothing is perfect, and to just let go of that ideal.

before kids, our house was like a museum.  perfect living room which was not lived in.  a dining room that i didn't want to eat in for fear of spilling on the carpet or scratching the table.  perfect "girl" and "boy" spare rooms that could have rivaled any spread in country living magazine, and a large neat bathroom.

what a difference 3 kids makes!  we now "live" in our living room - that pristine furniture we'd picked out before we got married is now gone and we have la-z-boy sofas and recliners which have been peed on, puked on and crumbed up. by 5pm each day the floor is a minefield of blocks, dolls, foam cutouts and books.  the perfect dining room table is often cluttered with the boy's papers, my laptop, toys, high chair trays and often crumbs from past meals.  thank goodness we got rid of the carpet a couple years ago - it's easier to clean the gooey mac n cheese off the floor now.

the "perfect" girl's room became the "perfect" nursery, which became the "perfect" boy's room, and is now the "imperfect, cluttered" nursery.  the big bathroom is now cluttered with tubs of clothes awaiting freddie beans to grow into them.  and the last vestiges of my "perfect house" - the boy's spare room - became the boy's bedroom, complete with tiny Lego all over the floor for me to step on.

i hate how cluttered my home is, but i accept it.  i have to.  i don't have the energy or time to thoroughly clean every day - i spot clean and it will have to be "good enough".  i tell myself that my house is by no means "hoarders" condition and that in a few years i will have the time and energy to put my house back to how i like it.  i remind myself that despite the stepped on Lego and the crumbs on the floor, that i should be grateful for all this, becos it is what makes my house a home.

having children makes a person rethink their way of living.  life is wabi-sabi - imperfect - we accept it, live with it, and move forward.

what to do on a rainy sunday

today we are playing hooky from church.  before i get "shamed" from the philistines, mom and dad are on a well-deserved vacay, and today has been very productive for me.  to wit:

1.  i went up into batty's hideout the attic and dug up 3 tubs of the boy's 12-24 month clothes.  i also brought down some more toys to clean up and give to the kiddos.  later today i'll go upstairs and sort through the tubs, since everything was all jumbled together.

2.  i cleaned off my craft desk.  it was buried under yarn, patterns, and notebooks, markers and stickers i got at the dollar store.  while i was putting away some beading supplies, i found some beads that i bought to make stitch markers, but couldn't figure out how to do it (they were czech briolet crystal).  i had a brief moment of clarity, and before i knew it, i had 4 new sock/lace markers:




then i used my newfound burst of creativity to make snag free markers with some fiber optic beads that i'd had for years but hoarded.  i think i got them at ella cinders, but when i inquired about them the girl said she didn't remember ever selling beads like that:




by the time i finished making my markers the boy and hubby came over to play nintendo (yes, hubby's old gaming system).  i cleaned up my knitting area and put away magazines and yarn, and found a pile of magazines that i have no idear whether i'm keeping them or if i just never got them read.  so i'll have a bit of magazine reading this afternoon.

then i decided to reorganize my stitch marker container (i got more containers at the dollar store last week) so i sorted by size (both needle and bead size).  then my generic rubber ring/locking marker/coil-less pins.  then i sorted my sock needles.  and my crochet hooks.  apologies for the second picture - i didn't show the other side of the green container:







and i ate the most delicious donut/UFO peach.  now my throat has the itchies and my belly hurts.  damn oral allergies.

my next goal is to clean off the dining room table, make out deposit slips for the kiddos' birthday stash, then make cold sesame noodles for sups.

and i listened to the rain on the roof when i was in the attic.  that was cool.