I feel like that for the most part, I’m pretty up front with you. I’ve never had a good poker face and have always felt like I was being less than honest if I didn’t spill everything that was on my mind. (That can be a good or bad thing, depending. . .) But when I get comments on my blog or Instagram asking about  how I keep my house so clean with five kids or how my kitchen countertop stays so clear, I feel like I’ve somehow misled you.

You see, I’m 99.9% sure that 99.9% of us all live in much the same way. My kids spill juice down the white cabinets as soon as I’ve cleaned up, my husband leaves dirty socks in the living room floor, my kitchen countertop is never, like ever, clean unless I’m taking photos for the blog (in which case, all of our crap is moved over to the kitchen table or another surface). It’s how life works if you live in your home–and we live pretty hard in ours.

And another truth: I feel discouraged about how terrible I’m doing with keeping up with it all–a lot of the time. I want a clean kitchen, but I don’t really want to mop the floor because as soon as I do, they’ll come in and smash blackberries or drip chocolate ice cream all over it. It’s the never ending battle that I choose to fight on only a semi-regular basis. Clean enough, not spotless, is the goal most days and there’s a lot of days where even that doesn’t happen. If I’m being completely honest (and I am), I photoshopped some crumbs out of my kitchen floor for an Instagram photo the other day. I didn’t see them until I got ready to post. You see? I’m growing immune to it all.

We’ve all heard the whole “social media is the highlight real”, blah blah blah. And we know it’s true. So, why don’t we believe it? I do it, too. I get suckered into believing there’s some cute little mom dressing her kids in matching outfits, keeping a spotless all-white house, feeding them a healthy, mess-free lunch, all while documenting her entire day on Instagram stories with the help of some mysterious photographer. It’s all bologna, we know it, and yet we buy into it anyway. (First of all, if you’re documenting your entire day or posting to Facebook every 20 minutes about what activity you’re doing with your kids, you probably have no idea what your kids are actually doing. . . Most likely, they’re swinging from the ceiling fan like an amusement park ride or cutting their own hair. I may possibly speak from experience.)

So, here’s a little encouragement for all of you mentally counting down the days until school starts: You see nice pictures, but my house is upside down, too. Like all of the time. Sometimes, I can’t even walk a straight line for all of the mess in the upstairs hallway. I pick up the bathroom hand towel from the floor 17 times a day. I may or may not have end-of-school papers still stacked on my kitchen table. I rarely walk from point A to point B without smashing a Cocoa Puff under my foot.

But just think: only a few more weeks and our kitchens will all be spotless, countertops will be clear and backpacks will return to their hooks with care–or let’s just keep telling ourselves that anyway. Because as my dad once told me, false hope is better than no hope at all. ;) Happy Summer!

See you all in a week or so. I’m taking actual time off with no computer.

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