Don't clean your house!

No really, I mean it!

I was sitting tonight looking at my mantel.  Remember it from my post the other day?  How pretty it looks...

Sometimes we (I) get so caught up in our houses looking perfect, our decoration looking perfect, and everything looking nice, we forget to notice the imperfections.

Like this one.  To my eye at first it is just unbalanced and not looking right.  I resist the urge however, tonight to pull it down.

See it?  See what I am talking about?  That ugly green McDonald's monster bucket?

 My sweet little Alia has put it up there three different times.  The first two I kept pulling it down, annoyed that she was messing up my mantle.  Then this third time, I admire her perseverance.  And through that I see her reason, and it wasn't to annoy me.  It was to add to something she finds special that I do. 

See I tend to decorate when they are gone or sleeping, and when they see it, to them something magical just happened.

My sweet little girl wanted to add something to that.  She was complimenting me in the best possible way.  I see that now.  And I am thankful for the minute of down time I got to really see and appreciate it.

I stop and realize in another handful of years, I will have that perfect house.  Or at least closer to it.  There won't be little annoying toys to step on, there won't be tiny clothing everywhere and crayons strewn about.  

Right now I tend to look at them as an inconvenience.  An imperfection, when in fact they are the epitome of perfection.  My perfectly normal, adorable, wonderful little girls.  

Princess dresses everywhere, drawings and creativity peak around every corner.  Their little budding personalities promising to reveal a little more every turn I take.

So, for now, for tonight, I am remembering to cherish all these things that I know I am going to miss all too soon.

I challenge you to do the same.  Let go of CLEAN and embrase the perfect gift(s) from above.