"Isn't our House Pretty!?"

"Isn't our house pretty? Isn't this just a great neighborhood? We walk downtown and have shops and restaurants..." This is what I hear my daughter saying to her friend in the back seat of the car on our way home today. And this is what takes me from my mood of feeling bugged by our need to do house improvements, and boredom about our landscaping and throws me into a great mood. Kids don't care if the bushes in the front of the house look sparse and the lawn is a bit shabby, as long as they get to cut it themselves. Kids don't care if they have to walk through the laundry room to get into the house from the driveway entrance. Kids don't care if we can't keep out a nice display of books and candles on the coffee table, or that we don't even have a coffee table. Kids actually like that in the kids' bedrooms there are huge posters of their favorite characters and posters they themselves have made, instead of perfectly hung art and freshly painted walls. So, now when my family and I walk into a home with a perfect lawn and everything in place I can remember that to my kids, our lawn is perfect too, and everything in our home is in its perfect place too. And when you have many kids, you might as well take on their perspective because #1 they totally have you outnumbered, #2 the perspective of a child is way more fun anyway, and #3 when I am gone, I want my kids remember the things we did together, their comfort in our home together, that we turned our "study" into an art room as soon as we moved in, instead of a mom who freaked out about them touching coffee table books or got upset about them missing spots when they mowed the lawn, or didn't let them try to mow it themselves. Also I don't want to forget: -we had our first day of art classes today at home. (Haven't done them for the past 2 years). The kids did great, and I was especially proud of Elaina! All of the students seemed so proud, and that is my goal each class!