Raw Footage

I remember the first time that I read the Nester's motto: "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful."  I thought to myself, "well, duh, of course it doesn't."  If things had to be perfect to be beautiful, then nothing in my life would be considered beautiful.  Nothing is perfect, specifically my home isn't perfect.  Well, it's not perfect in the sense that my home could be photographed for a magazine.  It's perfect in the sense that it provides us with a safe place to sleep, live, and enjoy life and I get to have fun making it beautiful.  

When the Nester asked us to show something in our homes that isn't perfect but is beautiful, I knew that I had plenty in my home that qualified.  I even asked John what he thought fit the motto, which he asked me back, "well what do you think, Meg?"  I immediately replied, "well everything!'' I'm right.  Nothing in my house is perfect, but I think it's beautiful.  I love my home.  I love what my home does.  So I thought and thought and I got the courage to do it.   I took pictures of our house right then in the current state of things:

On Saturday there were several people that came through this house.  Besides the five who live here, Daniel and his friend came over and hung out for most of the morning and afternoon.  Two of their friends came over while I was running.  Then, I had six people over that night for a party.  That's a total of fifteen people in one day.  That can be pretty typical for our house.  Our house works hard.  It sees a lot of people.  

A lot of people can mean a lot of mess, but that's not what I'm focused on.  I'm focused on the people, or at least I'm trying to be that way.  (My brother who lives here might disagree because when I asked him to put the dishes that he washed on the drying towel instead of back in the sink with the other dirty dishes he told me I run a Nazi regime.  Whatever.) Coffee cups and current craft projects on the kitchen counter are ok with me.  A little pile of stuff on the printer doesn't bother me.  We LIVE here and it shows.  (I first wrote shoes instead of shows.)

When someone walks through our front door, the picture above is what they see-our hallway and Burl's room.  Most likely, there are toys in the doorway.  And in the hallway.  And other places.  Because we live here.  We play here.

Sure, I have my messes.  That table right there is my craft table that is suppose to be cleared off but has a lot of stuff piled on it most of the time.  I don't mind it too much because it's in the little room off the living room, hidden by a half-wall.

I've been known to hide things too.  Am I the only one that does this?  That's a little pile of laundry on the side of the bed that no one sees from the hallway.  I knew no one would see it, so I *hid* it there.  It's not perfect, but it was worth it to leave a pile of unfolded clothes and play Just Dance with my brothers.

Eventually, I kicked everyone out of the house so I could prepare for a belated Valentine's Day dessert party for some of the girls in the youth group.  Candles were lit, food prepared (well that was done ahead of time), and things got a little bit closer to perfect.  Getting close to perfect is ok for parties in my book.  Some people say that it's fun to get dressed up for parties, well I say it's fun to dress up my house every once in a while.

Even my dressed up my house isn't perfect and that's great.  Whether someone is coming over for a party or just dropping in or hanging out all day, then I want them to feel comfortable.  Sometimes perfect can kill comfortable.  I just want my home to be an inviting place for everyone who comes in.  Spending a little QT with people is a beautiful thing.