I had an interesting experience today. We have decided we would like to Foster another dog with the "
Adopt a Golden" Golden Retriever Rescue. They have to come and do a "home check" before they let you foster their dogs. [And they check references, call your vet, and take DNA...OK, not the DNA part, but it is seriously as complicated as adopting a human child!].
So, the lady was coming today to "check" and see if my home was acceptable to be a foster home for a dog that is abandoned or stray. The unsavy might think that ANY home would be a good home for a dog whose only alternative is the gas chamber at the local pound, but NO! One would be wrong to think that! Apparently "Rescue Work" is all hoity-toity now and only the "best of the best" can volunteer to foster these precious pure bred "orphans" [which IS what they call them!].
Well, who knew?
So, it was just a little strange. I spent the morning cleaning while my family went off to a blast of a day at the Renaissance Festival with some dear friends of ours. [I stayed home with the baby because 6 hours at a RenFest in the GA heat was more than I could handle with an infant in a sling....call me a wuss!].
As I was cleaning, I was reflecting on the whole idea - this idea that our home is not good enough for the stray dogs these people are trying to place.
Which then led me to a reflection on the state of our home in general and whether that was good or bad.
I have had a long struggle with trying to "do it all" around here. I have 5 children. I homeschool. [That's at least 2 full time jobs right there]. I also work part time, nights and weekends. In addition, I am a very active volunteer in many different ways - I run the "care and concern" group for our neighborhood - providing food for families in our subdivision that have a surgery, new baby, or death. I volunteer for the Hospitality Committee at my Church as well as teaching Sunday School. I work as a volunteer book reviewer for La Leche League International. And more that I won't bother to list..... so, well, I'm pretty busy. And I am solely responsible for the upkeep our house - my husband has a lot of health problems. He works of course, but he is not really able to do much around the house other than love the kids.
So, it all falls on me.
I've spent years now feeling guilty and like a complete failure because of my home. My home is not "decorated" - it is "furnished", if you know what I mean. It is cluttered, no matter how many times I de-clutter. And while it is sanitary at all times, nobody [sane] would probably ever say it was "sparkling clean".
In years past, this has made me not invite people over. This has caused me to not host bible studies and kids Saint groups. This has caused me to really miss a lot of opportunities that God sent my way.
In recent months, I realized that this was also a sin - the sin of Pride.
Now I have come to believe that it really isn't important whether my house is perfect. As long as I am doing my basic housekeeping duties and keeping the home sanitary and safe for habitation - well, I shouldn't worry about the fact that the home is cluttered and usually toy strewn. I shouldn't worry that it doesn't have designer colors or that there are marks on all my walls because 5 children live here.
These things don't matter. Should I stop spending time with my children so I can scrub more often? Should I stop volunteer work so you can eat off my floor? I really don't think so.
No, I believe that what matters is that I am giving my all to my family, to my neighbors, to my Church, to every person I meet. I am now inviting people over, despite my imperfect home. And I am now running that "Saints Club" for kids that I've wanted to do for years.
Now I am finally practicing humility and opening my doors to all as I should have done all along.
Humility is a virtue I am sorely lacking. My pride gets in my way so often - pride is what makes me feel hurt and angry when someone does something mean to me, instead of asking "what is bothering this person that they would behave this way? What can I do to make things better for them?". Pride is what allows me to worry what others will think instead of only worrying about what God thinks. Pride is my downfall ....possibly my biggest sin.
Therefore, to facilitate my growing in humility - I am opening my home to you, my readers, so you can see my clutter. :) And you can tell me - Is my house good enough for a dog?
This is the first thing you see when you come to my house. It is our little porch, with my sloppy little over grown herb garden and my lovely statue of Mary. You can't see them in the picture, but I must be honest and let you know that there are spiders building webs on that porch and that there are carpenter bees living in the wood handrails. Over the door we have hand written in chalk "Christus Mansoniem Bendecat" which means "Christ Bless this House". [Only it is spelled correctly and I'm not sure I'm reproducing it correctly here!]
When you come into our door, you will see this entry. It is plain. There is a painting of Jesus of Divine Mercy by the door that you can't see - it says "Jesus, I trust in you". Here you are looking down a short hall way to our kitchen.
If you stand in the entry and look to your left, you will see our living room. [and sometimes our dog :) ]. All of the furniture you see in this room was given to us by others - kind and generous people who shared their excess with us.
This is our family room, complete with decorator dog crate and baby swing. ;)
This is our school area which is set up in our family room. You can see that we are overrun with books. And these are not the only bookshelves in our home. We have books everywhere. One of my fondest dreams is to turn this entire wall into one huge built in book shelf.
This is our dining area in the eat in kitchen - this beautiful dining table and chairs were, again, gifts from dear friends.
This is my kitchen. It is very cluttered. I always have a pile of books and "stuff" there to the left of the stove. I can't seem to stop myself. But this cluttered little kitchen is full of wonderful memories of cooking with my children, cooking for other families in need, cooking for my relatives for the holidays, and many other joys. I love my little kitchen.
This is our play room. Despite the fact that we regularly "prune out" toys, the toy box is full to overflowing and ALWAYS threatening to take over the rest of our home.
This is our master bedroom. How plain can it get? I don't use comforters or things like that because of my dust allergy, so this is as fancy as we get around here.
What you can't see in this picture is the mountain of dirty laundry I am standing beside as I take the photo. It is totally out of control right now - I've worked too many hours this week and am so far behind we are just lucky we have clothes to wear at all right now.
This is the room where the monkeys sleep. They sleep all together in the big bed, like a big pile of puppies. The baby naps in the crib in the day time and sleeps with my husband and I at night. In case you can't tell, that is a spiderman poster on the back wall there.
This is what was supposed to be the girls bedroom, and what is affectionately called "The Bunk Bed Room" for obvious reasons. It ends up being used mostly as an extra play room and a room for time out. Monkey4 sleeps in here as of recently, because the bigger kids kept waking her up so much at night in the big bed.
This is the "office" or computer room. It is *always* the messiest room in the house and it is where my husband tends to dump all his junk - mostly all the computer parts and pieces he picks up everywhere and brings home and then never touches again.
This is our back yard. No garden this year. Just weeds. But it is a fun yard for kids to play in - secure 6ft fence. And the trampoline, which gets an amazing amount of use.
So, that's our house. Now you have seen it and now I won't have to be ashamed to invite you over. :)
I still don't know whether it was deemed "good enough for the dog". The lady from the Rescue who came to do the "inspection" really liked our dog, but seemed totally indifferent to me and the house. She said they'd "be in touch"... whatever that means.
Well, the house may not be good enough for their dogs, but it is good enough for me.
Praise God!
