We Interrupt This Blog to Bring You….Real Life

I’m taking a break from my typical posts about pretty home decor, fun craft tutorials, and awesome organization ideas to bring you a glimpse at real life.  I think it’s easy to read blogs and begin to feel as though bloggers have it all together.  Our homes are always clean and put together, every room looks as though it came straight out of a magazine, and there’s a place for everything.

I want to be transparent here, so I want to share with you a glimpse inside my home as it looked over the weekend.  I took all of these photos over Labor Day weekend, and didn’t edit them a bit.  So sit back, enjoy, and revel in the fact that sometimes the most beautiful lives are the least perfect.  As long as we live in this house, there will be messes.  And I’m OK with that.

My home’s cleanliness level is always somewhere between “livable” and “just-Febreeze-the-crap-out-of-it-and-we’ll-get-to-it-later”.  There are tumbleweeds of dog hair blowing around the floor, courtesy of our three furbabies who shed like fiends.  Oh yea, they drool, too.  So it’s always fun when I step in a puddle of drool with dog hair in it.  Yum.  (That’s usually when that part of the floor actually does get cleaned.)

We live here.

We live here.  Our lives happen within these walls.  Mess and dirt are not only expected, but tolerated.

Our master bedroom is not only where my husband and I sleep, it’s where we snuggle with our furbabies and fall asleep to the sounds of their snoring.  It’s where my daughter comes on weekend mornings to wallow on top of Mark until he’s awake and laughing, tickling her until she can’t stand it anymore.

It’s a floor covered in dog beds because our dogs are our family.  Dakota gets a queen sized pillowtop mattress cover because she loves to stretch her back legs out and get really comfortable…all 100 pounds of her.

There are two smaller beds on my side of the bed where Daisy Mae sometimes sleeps…when she’s not in our bed.

And usually there’s an old sheet or towel on the floor, too, because Savannah is weird and likes dirty cloth – towels, t-shirts, whatever.  She balls them up underneath her body and crashes out, content with the world.

We live here.

The bathroom is where my day begins and ends.  It’s where I put on the mask I show to the world, and take it off each night.  It’s where I cut my husband’s hair every couple of weeks, usually laughing at his crazy hair that grows in 800 different directions.

It’s where some of the best conversations happen – either Mark or myself in the shower, the other one perched on the countertop.  We talk about money, weekend plans, DIY projects in the works, our jobs, Marley…  It’s where the words, “Hey, I have an idea…” are met with, “Ugh.  How much does it cost?”

We live here.

This is where my almost-teenage daughter spends hours upon hours, doing homework, listening to 5 Seconds of Summer on repeat, and playing with my old typewriter that she thinks is cool.

The stuffed animals on her bed remind me that she’s still my baby, while the laptop, flannel shirts, and loud music remind me that she’s growing up faster than I care to admit, and I need to make sure to take time to just be.  Be her mom.  Be her friend.  Be her mentor.

Her room has one foot in to a room makeover that we keep putting off…but will eventually happen.  Baby steps.  It’s a process…

We live here.

All that crap we don’t need anymore is sitting in this room to eventually sell.  Once loved items that we’ve outgrown…furniture that we no longer want…  It’s a reminder that we live in a world of excess and abundance, and I struggle to keep the peace so we’re not suffocating in all of it.

When it’s cleared out, this room houses guests.  I love when we have company.  When my home is full, my heart is full.  Truly.

We live here.

I spend a lot of time in this room.  It’s my craft room, my office, my happy place.  I have more craft supplies than I know what to do with, and it’s all in a bit of a disorganized mess at the moment.

Craftiness is messy business folks.  I destroy to create.

Some of my favorite home decor pieces have been made in this room.  Some of my greatest ideas have come out of this room.  Some of the most cherised moments spent with my daughter have been spent in this room.  And it warms my heart to know that there are more to come.

We live here.

This is about as real as it gets.  This was taken on Monday, Labor Day.  Mark was at work, Marley and I were being bums.  I feel like you can play “I Spy” with this picture.  Daisy Mae is passed out on the couch, which is covered in blankets to protect it from dog hair.

Dakota is passed out on the floor, half on and half off a dog bed, which almost completely covers the rug.  Savannah is not in the picture because she’s asleep in her usual spot – on the floor between the wall and the couch, sprawled out so you have to step over her to go to the kitchen.

My Ireland book is on the ottoman, because mom was just over the day before and we talked more about our upcoming trip.  I looked up haunted castles, and tried not to scare myself with the freaky stories.

I’m sitting there in my lovely pajamas that don’t match, no makeup, curly hair pulled back, and glasses on my face.  I’m blogging in this picture, and Marley is on her own laptop reading funny pictures to me off Pinterest and shopping weird t-shirts at Hot Topic.

“I Spy with my little eye….a vacuum cleaner!”

We live here.

I love this picture.  I didn’t realize it when I took it, but I really do love this picture.  It’s just a real-life glimpse into an ordinary lazy day at our house.  It makes me happy.

In real life….

…I have packing to do for my Ireland trip – I leave in a week!

…I have multiple rooms that I want to remodel but budget and time constraints keep these from happening.

…I try to cook dinner at least 4-5 nights per week, but sometimes I slack off and we eat sandwiches.

…our bed doesn’t get made.  Like, ever.

…laundry gets done when I’m down to that underwear I don’t really like and only wear when I don’t have clean underwear.

…our dogs dictate our decor more than we do.

…I should be doing something constructive right now, but I’d rather sit here in my PJs with my daughter doing absolutely nothing.

…home is my favorite place to be.

What’s your real life?