Let me clarify, first, that normal is considered a negative thing in our home. My mother made a big deal when I was growing up about how awful it would be to be normal. It’s so much more fun to be weird. It was fun, but it also taught her intended lesson that going along with the crowd is not necessarily a good thing. We knew that pulling the “But, everybody’s doing it” card was the kiss of death on any argument. I’m trying to teach this attitude to my children as well. In our home, “weirdo” is a term of endearment, although we do teach them that they can’t call other people this since not everyone understands how cool it is to be weird.

I’ve been having this strange feeling for the last few days. It’s been a crazy week, which happens to all families. A few weeks ago, I had a crazy week, but I knew it was coming. This has been one of those that has blindsided me. Every time I turned around, something came up that I didn’t expect. A few things couldn’t be helped, and others were commitments that I had completely forgotten.

Wednesday evening, I was surprised to see how much clutter had gathered around the house. I had done my walk-through, so at one point in the afternoon, it looked good. But by bedtime, it was a disaster. I picked it up on Thursday morning, but by Thursday afternoon, it was another disaster, just different stuff. Today was the same story, but in the kitchen.

So what is this feeling? I’m thinking it’s what normal people are feeling when they complain about being so busy that their house is a wreck. You know, the ones who go on and on about the mess, and so you start to think they’re a kindred spirit (slob), but then you have to stop by their house and while they apologize on and on, you’re thinking that you would do cartwheels and throw a party if your house looked that good?

I’m feeling like my house is getting out of control because we’ve been so busy. But I’m not feeling the despair that I used to feel before I started this journey. When I was only ever making tiny amounts of progress, the slightest wrinkle would send everything straight back into chaos. With the daily tasks I’ve been doing, things are pretty much under control in the main rooms of the house. I’m nowhere near done yet, however, since my master bedroom, kids’ rooms, playroom, any closet or cabinet or drawer, etc is still a total disaster. But the main areas where we live are so much better that a sudden mess does make me feel out-of-sorts, but doesn’t defeat me. A little extra effort is required above the daily tasks, but it can still be done without needing an entire day and a shovel.

So I’m thinking this is what “normal” feels like. Maybe in this case, normal isn’t all that bad.