Happy Times

Okay, so you might be wondering why I posted a picture of a giant mess in my closet. And while I agree that this most definitely is a daily mess (thanks to our shoe queen) - it also is a moment that made me SO incredibly happy.

You see it is very easy for me to remember life before kids…eating out WAY to much, frequenting our favorite local bar for darts and beer on a Wednesday night and sleeping in as late as we wanted on Saturday. Ahhh...sleep. I do remember what that was like. In a world of parenting, there is a lot of unknown. We are just at level 2. Just as in Mario World, I have learned that it gets exponentially more challenging the higher up you go...but that much more rewarding. There have definitely been those hard days where you find yourself clutching to the memories of before instead of embracing what is now. That is why this messy closet is SO important for me.

This picture represents one of the happiest things about my life right now and serves as a consistent reminder at how different things are nowadays. If you look really closely in the picture you might notice two tiny pink "shoe lights". Do you see them? I opened the closet last night on my way out to the gym and there they were. I knew that this was no random placement of shoes. It was very deliberate. More than likely our Miss Molly, after a long day of chasing Milo, scaling the slide and parading through the house in Mommy's shoes was ready to call it a night. When your day is done, shoes are put away...in the shoe closet of course.

Our life is very messy these days. I was at Kohl's returning a shirt last night and reached in my purse to pull out my wallet and out with it came a backup "just in case" pair of Dora panties. I have the secret stash of wipes in the trunk and about 15 little bows in my make-up bag. All this "clutter" serves as daily reminders of just how immersed we are in the world of our children. We would not have it any other way. It is really easy for me to focus on how tired I am or how much I long for a random date night without the effort of lining up babysitters. But it is the presence of the little shoes, the little bows, the little fruit snacks wedged in the seat of the car... these little things remind me how wonderful it is to have little Mays here in our lives.

Our "shoes" may be a little worn at times but our "soles" are full of joy.