would you like to see how we decorated our tree this year?
come on over to my other blog and read all about it.
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i finished up all my photo editing for 2010. wanted to share at least one shot from all of the last sessions.
THANK YOU for a truly amazing year of photography. THANK YOU! i will be back to taking photos (of YOU) in the spring. so much to do. don't you just want to kiss that baby right on the lips?!! bye. Please put us on your list when you come to the Wash DC area! (And leave time for tips n tutorials, my pics suck). Your pictures always makes me want to hug the screen! Best wishes for a New Year full of fun and profit ~ you deserve BOTH! gorgeous pictures Meg ! I wish we were closer so that you could take a family picture of us. We have none. Well…we do have the ones I just posted, but our teenager refused to be in them..ugh. Maybe if you ever make it to California you could bring your camera along and use your talents on us. xo you have very well-dressed clients. must be in the fine print! I was going to tell you the specific ones I liked…then I got to the point where I thought…forget it..they’re all great (maybe the baby on the Ikea comforter with the red blanket is secretly my fave). Meg, would you ever consider creating blog templates to sell, featuring your photos? I would totally buy one! Love the freshness of your work. Just a thought! xoxo The little girl looking up at you and you can see the reflection of you in her eyes is my favorite!!! You are awesome! So good Meg. The little girls in red were sooooo adorable!!! Such a cute baby Meg! I am having a baby in 3 weeks. Feel free to pop across the ocean to the land of down under for a snuggle. Janelle, I feel the same. HOW do you get over not having another? Ooh my ovaries hurt!! I do want to kiss that baby. oh my, that baby! my ovaries are aching 🙂 BAH! Amazing! That little bug in the red blanket is my sweet friend’s baby who I haven’t met yet. I love her already Good work! Could the Wrays be any cuter? Stunning pictures. We almost relocated to Wichita this summer. And had that been the case, I totally would’ve been scheduling a session with you. 😉 Bummer. I’ll just admire your fantastic work from here! What a gift you have! Just lovely! Meg, these are amazing! I love all of them… great job! sweet. gonna go find my chocolate stash. 🙂 Meg you really have such a talent for this…love looking at these…!!! Your photos make me swoon. Just sayin’. 🙂 We all have those “stashes”, hmmmm? They are a mom-necessity!!! LOVE the black and white photo of the baby swaddled on the quilt. LOVE IT. Here’s my question for you…if you ever need a question for a future post…How do you get over the baby thing!? I have four kiddos…the youngest is 4….we CLEARLY can’t afford more and if I think with my head I know 4 is it (husband DOES NOT want more)….but my HEART just wants another one. AGGGHHHH. Baby fixes don’t work for me…they just make me want another one even more :} Those baby pictures make me want to have more babies!! LOVE!!! my i desperately want a baby meter just broke a new record LOVE that little girls face in the 3rd picture. She looks like she could be up to trouble. ;o) You do Great Work Meg, Very Talented!<3 Congratulations! I bet is it going to feel amazing to get behind your sewing machine again. What a great year in photography you have had. Meg, simply said…you are AMAZING! do tell what fabric that is!!! perfect! Hi! I always admire your photography! I know you keep saying you want to learn how to use photoshop…so I was wondering what program you do use to edit your photos. They are beautiful. I am just starting out myself with photography and I feel like photoshop is sooo overwhelming…so maybe you use an easier program?! You are such a talented photographer. Beautiful. Wish I lived closer I would have you photograph my girls. Have not tried the peanut butter m&m’s. Thanks, one more thing I will probably love and should not eat!! LOL Yum! Peanut butter m&ms are the best kind! Pictures look great, but they always do! Just tried the peanutbutter m&ms at halloween. DELICIOUS. Beautiful work! I had a favorite in my mind, then I kept scrolling and changing my opinion. You get to work with so many darn cute kids! Such beautiful pictures. As soon as I win the lottery to pay for the transatlantic flights, I will be booking a slot 🙂 Looking forward to seeing what the fruits of your sewing machine workout. Love reading your blog everyday. Makes me feel part of a global village of women ignoring a sink full of dishes while on the internet 🙂 I totally get what you are saying…..sometimes a baby fix is needed! As are secret-stash M & M’s. 🙂 i love the baby pics! i just had TWIN girls 6 days ago….babies are SO much fun! 🙂 betsy and i just happen to be up…come on by for a baby fix 🙂 the water4christmas etsy shop is OPEN.
all profits go directly to building wells for clean safe WATER in west africa. shop for christmas gifts….shop for yourself….shop for future gifts to give.
shop with intention today.
******************************************************* I just bought a teal baby cradle for our 5 year old daughter. It’s beautiful, and it’s so nice to know that our little purchase will help others. Thanks for what you do! I read your blog daily. 🙂 yay!!! i have a facebook advocacy page, and we’re in the middle of our Seasons of Giving, where i showcase webshops where you can buy christmas presents that also give back. i’d love to feature water4christmas tomorrow! didn’t have time to make anything, but i can definitely get the word out! Yay! What a great collection. I was so worried that my measly crafty items wouldn’t be special enough … but one of them already sold. I’m so thrilled that I could help in my own, little way 🙂 This is something I am going to check out.. Can I order 2 of your Africa t-shirts? Not sure if you can do that or not. I just went shopping and am so excited to be involved again for such an amazing cause. Lovely stuff! Thanks for keeping us informed! Unfortunately I just went to buy something but the seller doesn’t ship to Canada. I really wanted the Puddin Pop Doll. Maybe I’ll find something else. thanks for sharing this wonderful opp to give to those in need. I bought the Daisy Mae onesie for a friend’s sweet baby Sophie. This will make the perfect Christmas gift. Thank you! Just bought a shirt for my son – SO CUTE!! Maybe next time you do this I will have developed a skill and can donate too! :)) I bought the coolest polkadot Vintage Paper Collage! I love it and it is going to look SO cool in my girly’s room! What a great idea-cool stuff AND the ability to support such a great cause. You are your friends are doing great things, Meg. I bought the {food is love} picture….I love it….. Fantastic! Will you be adding in any of the Africa tees? I was hoping for child’s size, I don’t need it by Christmas! : ) Yay!! wwwooohoooo! awesome! i did not see the crafts i sent in though. did they not make it??? I just made my purchase! Yay! meg, bought a bracelet and some vintage tea towels. I posted about this today too and linked to you! So exciting!! Kelly Just went on to buy something now but only has shipping info for USA. Happy to pay more to ship to Australia. Is this possible?! I know you had a deadline for getting stuff into the shop, but is it too late? We moved a few months ago and I hadn’t gotten to ‘my’ stuff until just a couple weeks ago, so therefore wasn’t quite ready for something like this. that i don't have it all together. i keep getting comments or emails asking "how do you do it all?" ME TOO. i got another one of those emails yesterday. i did not touch one thing in these rooms. i am not proud of this. my kids have lots of chores but yet it always is a big ol' mess in here! i get really discouraged when i clean it up or we all clean up and by bedtime….. so now you know….i do not have it all together. "how can SHE get all of that done?" "what is wrong with ME?!" the pretty-pretty is not real life. laundry that is real….but not fun to look at. cut yourself some slack today. AND obviously….CLEAN SOMETHING. Thank You… I feel right at home.. Thank goodness! I feel so much better. ~Kelly “The pretty-pretty is not real life.” What a perfect way to sum it all up. Thanks. Thanks for posting the real! It’s my reality, too. It helps to know that it’s the same for you. I can stop beating myself up. Thank you! ‘Real’ posts are the best posts. Love this! 🙂 Thanks for being real and really cute at the same time. My sister and I love reading your blog. We too struggle with being perfect. I have given up but have to repeat it to myself to remember. Have a merry Christmas and keep up the fun! Your art projects are so very cool. Your house is beautiful, as is your family and this blog. With this post of actual life YOU are the BEST and you are now book marked on my computer to check in to aww what fun things you have created. BRAVO. You are awesome! Oh come on, even your messes are pretty! Those pics, those pics… I want you to shoot our messy house n family of crazies and make it all look that pretty! <3 I just found your blog… And THANK YOU for this post! It makes me feel NORMAL! 🙂 Thank you so much for posting this! I have three teenage boys and their rooms always look like that! I’m so glad I’m not the only one. Thank you! Thank you! My house looks very similar to this and I always wonder how everyone else keeps such a well kept house. Awww a breath of fresh air! Thanks so much for this post. I needed it! I struggle with being unorganized and my husband is one that thinks since I stay home things shouldn’t get so messy and I feel guilty alot about this. Thanks for reminding me that real life is busy and messy and it’s okay! 🙂 What a great post! I just found you as I was browsing Blogland. Thank you so much for being REAL. It’s true. It’s easy to get caught up in the pretty, pottery barn style photos that I see and sometimes I do think,”geez, what’s wrong with me that I can’t pull of that style?” So thank you. Have a Merry Christmas. Peace and health to you and yours. i needed to see that today…thank you for the reminder. This is my first time visiting your blog and I already love you. I’ll keep coming back for sure. Thank you for posting this, a well lived in house is true perfection really. What’s the saying, “Women who have a clean house are boring.” Ha! Even your mess looks clean and cute! *L* I just found your blog and luvah it!!! Reading this post I knew this was the blog for me!!! I just finished tackling the 52 millionth dirty dish and putting the trillionth load of clothes in the dryer. Real life and the chaos that goes with it, albeit frustrating at times, is the true diamond in the rough, it is not the perfectly mounted diamond ring!! 🙂 I can’t wait to go thru the posts, etc, consider me a new and will be a long time follower. Take care 🙂 Angela You have no idea how many people you helped with this. Blogland is wonderful but it shiny and is not altogether real. Thank you, thank you, thank you Meg, for a making a corner that is real. Love you! I just found your blog from 320 Sycamore, and I’m already hooked. Isn’t it amazing how we all worry about what our homes look like, when in reality, they look like everyone else’s? I hate our floors – they are old, cheap laminate that are chipped in a hundred places. We get more compliments on how lovely the floors are than anything else. I’m your newest follower!! This is awesome! It’s so easy to get overwhelmed by the messes and overlook the blessings. I have four (all grown now), and my house looked like yours constantly. Now I have one daughter home, while she is looking for an apartment, and her room looks like the teenager’s in your house. I just keep the door shut. 🙂 I love this post. I’m always amazed when I go over to people’s houses and they are perfect. And I run around like crazy trying to make my house presentable when someone is coming over. I guess they probably do the same thing. But sometimes it feels like i’m the most disorganized, gross person in the world when I look around me. *sigh* This is my first visit, and it’s love at first sight! My favorite post. I’m relieved. I’m not the only one with the same problem. I thought something was wrong with me. I thought it was because I have four kids and we live in 1000 sq. feet. I guess it happens in big houses too. Of course, your messes are more colorful and have a much prettier background–or underground. whatever. And I’m so painting our big filing cabinet red. That’s awesome–except that I though I actually had an original idea to use ours as a dresser too. 🙂 Messy or not, I love seeing pictures of your house. Old houses are the best. (On the surface right? Ours is oldish too–but only 50 years.) Oh wow, had to come see what all this was about,my first time here, and what do I see, the same thing I see everyday at my place too, he he. I just smiled the whole way thru, it was so nice to see, someone else put it all out there. My VERY FIRST blog post, was a tour of my messy home, and then I cleaned it A BIT, for a quick before and after. I was hooked to blogging, and I think that was also the LAST Time my house got cleaned all at once, lol. This was back in eary August, lol. I actually stopped reading your blog for a while because as much as I loved it, I just felt so inadequate afterwards. 🙂 I was just sitting here and decided to come visit you again and saw this post. You really are real! You’ve made a believer outta me again! Thank you!!!!! You’re even more awesome than before! I love you. It is so seriously, refreshingly welcome to see a little honesty out there! I just adore ooohhing and aaahing at all the beautiful, retouched and drool-worthy photos on all these gorgeous blogs I enjoy reading, but it is so nice to know that at least someone out there also has a bunch of messy kids, laundry, dishes piling up and the wherewithall to realize that this is what life is all about! Make the most of it, dirt and all! Thank you for the beautiful post! I LOVE it when you show us your house – clean or messy. It’s always beautiful – lived in and loved in. Thanks for the encouragement today Meg! I needed it! Thank you Thank you for posting this side of life. Too often, I beat myself up about not having that model looking home. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!! I am so glad I am NOT alone!!!! THIS is what I love about blogging..the reality of it all. I love that you did this..it makes you more loved and more human..and it makes me feel Normal. ha ha! I didn’t realize we lived at the same house! 😉 I have 4 boys so double your mess times two and add lots of stinkiness for my house!! Thanks for posting that. You are not alone. 🙂 Meg – I have been reading your blog for a while now and have always loved it. This is my first comment. Tears are streaming down my face as I read this post. Thank you. I really needed it today. I am feeling overwhelmed and insignificant and just not good enough at anything. I love my Lord and Savior and I know I am His precious child – which is enough. But you are right – you read blogs, people’s facebook status updates, Christmas card letters, etc. and you start to look at the lives of others and measure yours on the two dimensional view you have of theirs. I can’t thank you enough. I think we all need to be more real in our lives – it does more for others than we could ever imagine. Blessings to you and your family. Can’t thank you enough for your honesty in sharing this with us. We’re all in these trenches together, aren’t we? These are the prettiest picture ever!!! Am I sick to say that they make my heart feel happy??? I just found this link from another blog. I really needed this today. Thank you! Makes me like you even more!! Thank you for your honesty! I love LOVE mom blogs for inspiration, crafty fun ideas, etc. but sometimes I do leave feeling a little inadequate like why aren’t my kids in smocked dresses neatly crafting while Xmas music plays in the background?!? So thank you thank you a BIG thank you for keeping it real! 😉 As long as your house is functioning for all the fun stuff you’re doing with your family, then that’s perfectly good enough. Meg, this is awesome. You really have a way of making us all feel that we’re in the same boat. You have no idea how much this post means to me – to stop comparing myself and home to others, life is messy – you are so right. It is okay to have a mess. Home is where you live. Thanks for this 🙂 that is great! …but with humility comes wisdom.(Prov 11:2b) And from where I am sitting, you are truly wise. Thank you for your humility and your words of wisdom and encouragement each day. It is a blessing looking into your world each day, no matter a perfect or messy scene. All your pictures just give a glimpse of how much love you shower on your family! A messy home is a cozy home–at least that is the excuse I use! So, off I go to clean up a house that looks like yours right now, but at least I can smile and not feel alone:) I don’t even know you …BUT I LOVE YOU MAN!!! That’s all too common around this house. You are awesome to show us we are not alone. I tell my sister if you want to have a hobby, you have to make the time to do it…the mess will ALWAYS be there! Thank you again, so glad I started following you not long ago;) Thank you. Simply because now I don’t feel quite so overwhelmed and incompetent with my own home. As I scrolled down my heart leapt and burst with happiness… Hahaha! Now, you’re going to get emails asking you what you do all day since obviously you’re not cleaning the house! Thanks for keeping it real! This is why I love reading your blog!!!! This is one of MANY reasons that I love you & your blog: reality & fun. Real life is MESSY, but it’s totally worth it. I love you even more after reading this or should I say seeing this, I heart your messy house!!! I LOVE that you share and that you always, always keep it real!!! Don’t worry too much about not being able to keep up with all the work pouring over you; it is what makes your house, your house. No one’s house looks like the perfect house we think everyone else has, and yet we are all striving for the perfection we see in magazines. I swear it is just the media and commercialism coming over us. Almost like a vicious cycle… Your house shows creativity, the fact of real life. So please don’t fuss over the small things, as much as we all love a clean house! HA! Love love love it!!! My DOWNSTAIRS was picked up for an event recently. The upstairs was OFF limits and even then the “clean” lasted 1 day 🙂 Yup…life is a bit messy!!! Thank you SO much!!!! I just let out a big sigh of relief . . . thank you! I think I’m cutting myself some slack today knowing my life is just as REAL as others out there. HAHAHAHA i love you meg! 🙂 Thanks for the shots !!! I have got three children and … it is not easy !!! You spent the whole day trying to clean and organize things and in only “FIVE” minutes kids arrive and the “mess” is there again, hehe. I just decided to take it easy, there are more important things to live for than a fabulous cleaned and organized home. THANK YOU!!!!! That’s why I love you… You are awesome AND you are real. Thank you. THANK YOU!!! I was just here debating about what to do– paint, scrub floors & do laundry & dishes & other housework until I crash… grade papers… and I was wondering what on earth is WRONG with me. How do other women do it all?! How do they keep up? How are they *perfect* and i’m always falling apart. What a fabulous post. I never think that blogland is perfect. I know that some of the girls that are doing projects and blogging all the time have let something go in their lives. I know that if I go off every day, my house gets a little messy. (I only have one son and he is 16) The girls in blogland are letting the laundry go, the closets go, etc. It is not perfect. I have always told you that you are a great mom. A fun mom that does things with the kids. Lets them do crafts etc. I am not that mom. I have to have a clean and organized house and that is what Caden will remember when he leaves the house. We just have to be ourselves and not try to be something we are not. I am orderly and neat and I can’t change that to be something different. Praise yourself for being a good mom, a Christian, a testimony to others. You have a lot of wonderful qualities. I read your blog every day. This very well may be my favorite post. I was feeling overwhelmed and now I don’t feel so alone. Your house is still gorgeous. Somehow, your mess looks charming 🙂 Thank you. I feel better now about leaving the dishes in my sink for another night. Thanks for your honesty. It is a great reminder that we don’t have to have it all together and no one really does! I am going to start cuddling with my kids more and stop worrying about the house so much. Thank You. You don’t know how much this means. i knew, while reading this, that it was going to be one of those posts with LOTS of comments. as moms, sisters, friends, daughters, etc. we sure put a lot of pressure on ourselves–and our homes suffer greatly at times, don’t they?! my home looks exactly like these pictures, especially the kitchen sink! i truly appreciate this post, meg! I love you Meg!!!!! thanks for keeping it real!!! Thanks for being real. As I read i thought this probably resonates with soooo many women… confirmed by the 242 comments on this post. I hate that we put so much pressure on ourselves by comparison to something that rarely exists – the perfect mom. That i am not. i am a needy sinner delighted that God never made a commandment against a messy house! Thankful that the grace of Jesus is always lavish and amazing! Thanks again. I agree that you are even more awesome for showing reality. Thank you. You do appear to have it completely together, and it’s not that I feel better about myself for your short comings….that’s not it at all. It’s good to know you are human as well! x0x0x0 It is funny….even your messes are colorful and seem to be happy! I actually don’t have a messy house, but I am IN my home all day with my girls (we homeschool) and everyone has cleaning chores to do to keep the house picked up. I need it clean to concentrate on schooling or I’d constantly be thinking about how I need to clean up! If we all had to bolt out the door in the morning for school/work I’m sure my home would look the same – only not quite so “chipper.” 🙂 Oh my…THANK YOU so much for this! Sometimes I sit with coffee in hand reading the blogs I adore – every one gorgeous & perfect. Then walk into my family room where it looks like a bomb went off – immediate shame. 🙂 Thank you, Thank you for being a REAL person. I love your Blog – the pretty & not so pretty! 🙂 I’ve been following for a little while, yet to comment. But just had to on this one because I LOVE it! 🙂 I think this encouraged me more than all the blogs I’ve ever read COMBINED. I’m not alone in the craziness! i want this post framed in my house. o lol girl!!! i feel right at home 🙂 and….that is why i love reading your blog I love you. You are so awesome for sharing these photos, and so BRAVE! I would never want to post the pictures of what my house look like MOST of the time! Good to put things in perspective once in a while, but of course who wants to look at messy pictures all the time, we like living in our little fantasy world that everything looks good 24/7!! lol Plus, it we take pictures when it’s all clean and neat, we can freeze it just like that! Wow! That is messy, hehehe:) Thanks for sharing. That’s my house too. Thank you. so. much. Thanks for this! I have more respect for you now than ever before! One more reason to adore you and your blog. You have made me feel so much better about myself. I am constantly struggling with the feeling that I just don’t measure up to the “superwomen” I see on other blogs. Now I realize that we all have our dirty little secrets- aka laundry piles- laying around! 🙂 THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!!!!! i always love the “keepin’ it real” posts. 🙂 it looks like everything is unpacked from your trip, though! takes us like 3 weeks to do that! 🙂 Thank you. I love you man! Thanks for keepin it real! Blog hopping this morning and stumbled upon your blog. I LOVE IT!!! what a refreshing post this is. As a mom of 3, a full time student, full time wife, part time employee I am full time crazy and feel like I am going to burst at times ~ ESPECIALLY when others think I “have it all together”… HAHAHA what a laugh. Instead of Littlest Pets in the Foyer, it is Matchbox cars parked on the foyer rug, because there are lines on the rug and they are, apparently, perfect parking spaces. Also, the sun shines in the front door in the morning and it is warm and sunny and the best place to play and park your 500 Matchbox cars (and sometimes army guys). And I am always frustrated by it, stepping all over those cars. But you are right! You made me feel better about them, and someday I will miss those cars. Thanks, Meg. Forget the mess ~ I LOVE the Pet Shop world. In our house it was Fisher Price world but looked the same and was always right in the middle of the living room. Enjoy every minute ~ it goes SO fast. amen, sister. my life everrryyday. and i only have two! THANK YOU for this. You know how to keep it “real”. And inspire. I *love* the filing cabinets repurposed as drawers — ingenious!!! And the other thing I saw in these pictures? Love. Not a mom nagging all the time to “pick up, clean up” (that would be me since we have the house on the market right now). . .it looks like your kids have time to PLAY and that is awesome. you have NO IDEA how much better i feel after seeing those photos. thank you. YAY! I can match those messy kids rooms and bathrooms! I will not be judged by my kids rooms, nope, no way, not doing it. Bigger fish to fry over here. My heart and head are clean, and so are my kids, and I’ll take that any day over the alternative. The craft room got an out loud laugh from me…that would be my home office. Next time…open a few closet doors for our entertainment, will ya? You’re a doll. oh, well, of course you have 218 comments on this post. Thanks for sharing!!! I do my best to keep my main level clean, but upstairs – FORGET IT. I joke that our master bedroom looks like a good (or bad?) episode of hoarders. Laundry piles, stuff to put away/find a home, anything random, treadmill in the corner, throw pillows – thrown about. Amazing. I see the same “just stepped out of” pants on the floor of our bathroom every night. I see the same piles of clothes, open drawers, dishes (mine are not as cute) every day. This is why I want to be you: because you are so real, yet so inspiring. As if it’s even possible, I love you even more now that I feel like I can REALLY relate to you. Thank you for this post. Not because you’re not perfect, but because you’re real! BABIES DON’T KEEP I NEEDED THIS POST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for being so real! This is why I love your blog. I have a HUGE phobia of people ‘popping in’. My tiny house which includes 5 humans and 1 dog, is ALWAYS a disaster and I’m a SAHM! I beat myself up everyday that I’m really sucking at this current profession… but the reality is, those people that ‘pop’ in could care less about my mess. They seem un-comfortable if they happen to see everything in a perfect state. you are even cooler than i knew! thank you for being so real. Oh my gosh, 210 comments – that kind of sums it right up there. Ah LOVED this!!! Pure, TRUE, and completely honest!!! and yet, you are always an inspiration! Thanks for sharing and making us mamas feel normal 😉 whatever that is, right? Hee…hee.. In the craft room picture, what is all over the “M”? I have an “a” and I am not sure what to do with it and I love yours.Thanks Thank you from the deepest part of my heart for sharing this – I’ve been looking at all the pretty online and beating myself up over all the messy in my own life. It’s good to come back to reality and know that everyone has both in their lives 🙂 This just what I needed to hear today! Thanks! I love you. I love this. It’s so easy to forget when we see such gorgeous shots on peoples blogs that they likely cleaned up specifically to take those pics. Or had just finished a huge clean and thought hey, I should take a pic now. I absolutely love this. It’s nice to see that someone else has an imperfect house like mine. And I don’t want to spend every day trying to make my house perfect. I want to try and enjoy every minute with our 4 kids while they are still kids!! (oh, and just curious….what program do you use to put the text boxes on your pics like that? They are super cute!!) THANK YOU!!! Thanks… i feel better. your mess is even colorful just like you! My favorite is “the teenager’s room.” It reminds me of when I left home and my mother had to figure out what to do with all of the road signs I had “acquired” on some rowdy weekend adventures. I love love love this post. Thanks for taking the time to post it. I absolutely love this post. This is awesome! Thanks for sharing- your blog is fabulous! *sigh* Thanks so much for being so real and for sharing. Hey Meg…love this post…I’m in the same boat as you with 6 kids! The one question I have is why do the kids NEVER close the drawers of their dressers?? How hard is that??? And I JUST got home from Costco and the box of 50 chips has already been halfway eaten….aaaagggghhhhh!!! This is why Moms drink so much diet coke and shop for hours and hours on end…see? I just justified the shopping I’m about to do… tears…thanks meg! Thank you! 🙂 Meg, I love ya girl and this post is why….I spent today…instead of working as I should have been….I work from home 95% of the time…I spent the day picking up my house…I couldn’t even clean because there is so much just to pick up! Geesh….and laundry….well…the pile is high…very high. thanks for reminding us that we all are just doing the best we can……including you……. Thanks for being so real Meg!! Sounds like you might be tired of hearing this but…get ready for it…You’re STILL “so great”. This post my dear is one of the reasons you are “so great”. Sorry. Had to tell you even if you don’t want to hear it today. 🙂 I love a real, genuine, authentic person. And WHY can’t the kids shut the drawers??? For the life of me, I can’t figure it out. lol thanks… i needed this today. knowing others are in the same boat, makes me feel less alone. now i need to go clean! ha ha! Thank you so much for that post! I thought my teenage daughter was the only one who could destroy her room, her bathroom and practically every room she is in. At least I only have one at home. My son is in college and he was home for Thanksgiving I found out he is a neat freak. What????? Anyway, thanks for sharing. Thank you for this post. Thank you for making me feel better about my messy house and reminding me that I am not the only one! i love that you posted pictures! thanks so much for that encouragement b/c although i’ve never commented on that in particular, i have often wondered! i stayed home all day in my jammers to clean up piles that look very similar to yours. i stll have more to go though. And this is why you are my favorite blogger. We are all in this together- You are always “keepin it real”! This seriously made my day. Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting this! It’s so easy to get down on yourself for not being perfect, and it’s hard to remember that no one is. Aaaah, sigh of relief! 🙂 you rock! love this post. but, somehow, even your messy is cute… OK. This is rad! I love your house even more now. Everything looks as it should and does make me feel less together. Every post I read makes me wish more and more that we were neighbors and friends!! Is that weird?? Thank you. And you can come over to my house any day — you’ll feel right at home. 🙂 Relief floods the blogosphere. Mothers cheer aloud infront of their computers. We are not alone! xx Whew. Yep. Here too. Not proud, but it’s reality. I love you..ha…seriously i love this about you and you’re blog. You’re blog is always my fresh of breath air blog. Thanks for keeping it real! I have a sign in my kitchen that says I love you for showing us your real house. We’re all in the same boat! love the daisy bowl in the sink From the bottom of my heart….THANK YOU! You ROCK! And so do I! Thank you for sharing! Thank you for this post. 🙂 I have to admit, I walked around my house this morning and thought about you and your house! I thought, “why can’t I get it together like Meg?”. I still think you’re an amazing woman and I’m happy to know that it’s normal for a house to look like this…especially when people are actually living in it! THANK YOU! I am so tired of every blog mom trying to come across as perfect. Posting their only perfect pictures, only telling their perfect stories…it’s disgusting. Meg – this is good stuff. GOOD stuff! I *know* you honored God with this transparency because your post was a word written according to the need of the moment. You gave grace to those “hearing” you 🙂 Where is the LOVE IT button….Cause it made me smile today…I only have 3 kids…But the almost 3 yr old is with me all day and anything I accompish in one room is counteracted by the mess she makes in another room… Oh, I love you! Your are real. You make every mom out there feel ok. Thank you!!!!! I think this is the best post yet.I was only thinking about you the other day and ‘How does Meg do it all with that big house ” I guess you don’t after all.Thanks for the honesty. This made me want to cry. Not kidding. Thank you. Oh Meg:) Whatever works for you:) I know I am just one that can”t function in a mess:) I do, like you a ton of laundry a day which I love to do. I wash and fold and my kids have to put their wash away.They also have to make up their beds when they wake up. Even our little ones they keep up their rooms. With eight kids I just expect them to put wash away and keep the bedroooms clean:) Have a wonderful weekend:) Awesome! I love this post, this is real life! I have six kiddos and my house looks exactly the same way all the time. I must admit though I’m a little disappointed in that I thought it got better as they got older, but apparently not as you have teenagers. My oldest is nine so I guess I should just give up:)lol Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your life with us, your blog has always been an encouragement to me. You live life and you live it to the fullest, you are truly blessed. And I love that you honor wowza! What I see is a woman who is SO present with her kids and that is WAY more important than having a put together home. To me, your home is full of warmth, love, joy, and FUN! I am reading The Mission of Motherhood by Sally Clarkson. Sally states “But it’s the way I respond to my children in everyday moments that gives me the best chance of winning their hearts. If I have integrity and patience in the small moments of heart, then I have a far better chance of influencing them in the larger and more critical issues of life.” We cannot do it all. Something has to give somewhere. Time invested in our kids is more important than having a gorgeous, organized home. I admit that I struggle with this very thing – being present for my kids, being a slave to ‘getting things done’. In reality, it doesnt’ matter if my home is clean & beautiful or if I have all the laundry done. (Which I never do!) But I can let go of the guilt of not having it done! I really admire you Meg ~ for the kind of mother that you are. Ha ha ha! love it! this is why your blog is my favorite. my first click of my day. everyday. thank you so much for this post day! Awesome! Thank you so much for posting this. There are so many blogs out there that only show the airbrushed pictures of…well, everything in their life. I stopped reading them because I was starting to feel inferior about…well, everything in my life. But my sister e-mailed me this link and simply wrote, “Good post.” Thanks for the reality check. Not just yours but mine too. We forget sometimes that blogland is usually everyone’s best foot forward. I think with the holidays we all get ourselves bogged down. When really we just need to enjoy the simplicity of life. Enjoy our families and our friends. Kimberlee and I have had this conversation before–about blogland and deceiving perfection. When I walk into someone’s house I always feel more at home if I can relate to them…and sometimes it’s seeing real life and not a neat and clean house! LOVE this post…and my house looks likes this too 99% of the time… Thank you. Posts like this are why you are so loved! Thanks for bringing some of us back to reality. I have read your blog for quite a while now and marvel at “Craft Thursday” and the fun that you have with your family, friends and one of the dream jobs that I would love…which is not sitting at a desk in a corporation. My comment doesn’t help you to get your house clean, but it does help me to know that mine isn’t the only one that is “lived in”! Thank you for this post!! Life is messy. So are houses. I have 4 kids and it’s IMPOSSIBLE to have my house clean all at the same time or for any length of time. It always makes me laugh when someone comes over for a party where I spent hours cleaning and thinks it looks like that all the time. Hilarious and impossible. Thanks for keeping it real. Ok..I love that you did this! I read blogs mostly for the pictures and I love yours, but I always wonder how it looks so clean. I am so glad to see you keep it real like the rest of us! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are so many times that I just ask myself “WHY CAN’T I KEEP THIS HOUSE CLEAN?? YOU just TOTALLY and COMPLETELY ROCK!!!!- thanks for sharing your “real” world, so that we ALL can feel better about our “real” worlds!! love ya meg!! thanks for keeping it real!! your house shows how comfortable you live…where your priorities are…and that your house is filled with love…and thanks for the pep talk!! 🙂 thanks for sharing! Not sure why someone else’s mess makes us feel better about our own, but it does! I have been trying to focus more on the kids than the mess- but it’s tough to juggle it all. Thanks again for your honesty This just made me love you EVEN MORE! OH MY GOSH THANK YOU!! oh meg…….how i love you. *love* it. things in blogworld look a little too perfect sometimes..thank you for being real! 🙂 I think you’re amazing! Cleaning can always be put off to tomorrow. :o) Oh my Meg… ha! overflowing toilets….we just had one this week! And my child just jumped in the shower in disbelief and didn’t say anything! I walk by and think they are running bath water. Not pretty. But oh so real. Thanks for being real. Thanks for taking that “virtual” weight off our shoulders. Meg, if I could I would high five you right now! That is how my house looks, well 90% of the time. Thank you for letting us know you are one of us! Yea!!! Love you even more after this post:) I love it!!! I have been following your blog for awhile now, and I don’t think that I have ever commented. I truly admire the mom that you are, you are awesome and that is what is important!! Who cares if the laundry is not done, or dishes in the sink? Your kids are loved and that is what matters!! I think you are such a great gal and this post just reitterated that to me!!!! LOVE your realness!!! (is that a word??) Great post. 🙂 You’re so right – no one has it all together! Thank goodness we’re all in the same boat! My house looks the same – and I only have 3 of your 5. 🙂 I just did a post about this not that long ago, because people kept asking me the same thing. “How can you have 6 kids and do all that you do….” etc. etc. In reality my house is completely destroyed LOL! That’s life! Right now, I’m sitting on the couch with the laptop looking at about 5 over flowing laundry baskets filled with clothes that need to be folded and put away hahaha. And there’s more overflowing on the floor in the laundry room waiting to be washed. great keepin’ it real post Meg! all i can say is thank you….sometimes I do look at your blog and think it is all perfect….but of course you are going to want to put the “best” pics on your blog…I do the same thing…but a dose of your reality makes me feel like we are so the same….love it!!! breathe taking to know that everyone is not perfect. A short comment…because I must go clean…but after reading your post I will go clean with a smile. Thank you for sharing your reality with us, knowing others are the same position can always help change our perspective. Thank you MEG!! THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU!! Thanks Meg. I so needed this today. A reminder of real life. I so get sucked into the pretty pretty thing on blogs so much so sometimes, that it paralyzes me to do anything. I mean, why bother? I’m never going to acheive that perfection anyway, right? Sometimes I just want to cry, I am so exhausted and can’t figure out why with just one almost 15 month old baby I can’t get it all done?? Big sigh. PMS doesn’t help my attitude today either…lol. The BEST post I’ve seen in blog land in a while. Makes me feel normal. Thanks for sharing and being honest. I liked you before this post, but now I love you. 🙂 i love honesty!! i hate messes, though! 🙂 and my house is a great big huge mess, but having three kids I’ve learned to let that go. we have laundry piles, dish piles, little people piles, barbie piles, wii game piles, lego piles, shoe piles…. THANK YOU for sharing this! I don’t know why, but as you say, when I see all the pretty, shiny, crafty goodness in blog-land, I somehow internalize it and think my life should not be so mess. And you are absolutely right, it is discouraging to clean and have it messed up in minutes, if not hours! (That’s why I hate cleaning the kitchen especially!) I appreciate the glimpse into your ‘real’ life, it has reminded me of where things really stand! i really heart you. Take heart! My house used to look much like yours (and everyone else who had young families)! There WILL come a time when you clean it and it stays clean. But that comes with a high price-no messy little ones or even disgruntled teenagers living with you to clean up after. I love my grown-up children and am fortunate to see them often but I sure miss those days and would do it all over in a snap, given the opportunity. So do your best, close your eyes to the rest and give each one of those sweet babies an extra hug today! Oh how i LOVE this post! It’s good know that i am not alone with the laundry and dishes that never end! Thank you Meg for posting this!! You rock Meg! Oh Meg….in all honestly I could not survive at your house…lol. I can’t deny the connection of an orderly house and an orderly mind, when all is clean and free, I think more clearly, get more done. I had 3 kids at home and ran a business from home so I do know….my concern is for the kids, I believe that being organized is a very important skill for their future. I run a very large corporation now and my #1 problem with the younger employees is that they are so messy- and have problems finding things, and their paper trails are always at lost, which in the business I am in it is extremely important. Oh thank Heaven! 🙂 Love this post! Thanks for keeping it real… Thanks for that. Looking around my house this morning as I sit here at the computer sipping coffee, I am feeling guilty for not having a cleaner house. Reality check, I’m not alone! I’m thankful for the grace this post extended me, you rock! (My house looks just about the same, if not worse! :)) I just wanted to tell you how much I have been loving your blog, I just look forward to it. My friends told me about it a couple of months ago and I loved it right off. As everyone else does!! It takes time and lots of heart to faithfully blog, especially the good, meaningful stuff, and I so appreciate it. Thanks so much! I love this. My house looks the SAME! Thanks for being real. 🙂 I live the same battle too. Funny thing though. I actually woke up this morning and there was not a single dirty dish in the house! That never happens! Oh, Megan, I love you even more! Your house is alive and you too! Our home looks exactly like yours :)). We clean up, of course, but in about 15 minutes after we finish looks exactly like before we started. And this, Meg, is why we love you. 🙂 Seriously. That looks like my upstairs. The main level stays pretty picked up because I have a home day care and so people are walking through everyday. Everyone assumes that the whole house is that way. WRONG. The upstairs has clothes everywhere, the beds are never made, the dresser drawers are always open. Kate throws everything out of her dresser, daily. Life is messy. But we are all happy. Oh, and Kate has the same polka dot sheets as your little girls! Thank you – I’m a mom with a full-time job and my house is the area that gets sacrified the most as I can’t do it all. Makes me feel like I’m not such a failure 🙂 No worries, you need to remember all those studies that say dirt is good for kids, keeps them from getting asthma & allergies, so you’re really doing it for your kid’s health 🙂 I wrote a post yesterday about laundry. I thought to myself “what a boring post” but it’s my every day. This is just plain really good. Thank you for this post! Have you heard the quote , “a clean house is a sign of a misspent life”? I think of that often when I get overwhelmed by all I feel needs to be done in my house. The fact that your house is “lived in” shows your priorities are where they should be- on the people in your family and living life. When your kids are all grown up and on their own you can have a house that will stay clean for more than a few minutes. Thank you for showing your home and your life on this blog! Pokadots still make your house look cheerful! Maybe I don’t need to clean just throw in more polka dots! This post right here is exactly why I keep reading your blog. You keep it real in the middle of all the pretty. Thanks for you honesty. It’s my favorite thing about you. Oh, and the mutual love for polka dots too! 🙂 Just what I needed this morning. Thanks for keeping it real! You are so awesome… inspiring and keeping it real, all at the same time. thank you for this. I don’t feel so alone anymore! thanks! i am so glad you put the real photos out there too. sometimes i get the keeping up with the bloggers (jones) feeling. The pictures of your kids clothes on top of the dresser instead of in it and all over the floor is my life. It drives me crazy but I just shut the door and walk away. You’re so full of “amazingness,” Meg. These are the reasons why I love reading your blog every day: you try to make a more meaningful life for you as a woman, a Christian, a wife, a mom, a friend, and everything else to everyone else. You fail sometimes, but you are so full of win most of the time. As much as I like how you’re talented, fun, caring, and crafty, I also like that you’re cranky, moody, and messy. Thank you. It’s easy to forget what is important, esp when the house is a mess and you’re overwhelmed. I feel like I am drowning in laundry, clutter, and to-do lists, but so is everyone else. Now, I am going to ignore my housework, shower, and help make Christmas cards at my daughter’s school, which I know has made this week pretty awesome for her and her class. Thanks again for keepin’ it real. 🙂 <3 Thank you Meg! thank you for sharing!!! Boy, you’re brave!! I never try to be perfect on my blog but man my house looks like a tornado most days!! My husband comes home from work and gives me ‘that look’. Ugh… I sometimes feel buried under junk too, but I let go of some of my type A clean-freak tendencies when I had my kids. We try to straighten up the house before bed, but I only make them straighten their rooms when I have to vacuum. Hey, look at it this way, someday they’ll be gone and the mess won’t be so bad and you’ll miss it! If it helps…I have a friend who’s house is spotless – however…her kids can’t sit on the furniture, walk through with food, eat certain things (like food), or have shoes on inside. What I love about your blog is that you “get” it-the kids are only little once. They only want to hang out with you for so long and then they have their own lives, they get jobs, they go away to school and there will still be laundry and dusting to do but there won’t be those little ones to hug and squeeze and drop everything to spend time with. Here’s to real life!! Thanks Meg. That’s why I love you. You are so humble and can tell the truth even when it’s not pretty. And my house looks at least that bad or worse most days. I have 3 under 5 and it is tornado city. I get discouraged and feel like a gross pig. But then I put up the Christmas tree instead of clean. So I know a lot of it is just my personality. I would rather have fun than clean. Anyway, thanks for being honest. Love ya Meg! Hahaha! I love you! I love that you’re a real person. And I don’t care if you house is a mess, you’re hair is always great! hahaha! Thank you!!!!! I’m a mom of three who works one full time job and MULTIPLE part time jobs and I can NOT keep up with the house. Your pictures made me feel normal again! My house may not be clean, but my life is pretty darn good, otherwise!!! So no complaints from me!! Thanks! You’re awesome! I didn’t think it was possible to love you any more than I already did – and then you posted these pictures!!! Some days I think “What is WRONG with US???” because our house can’t stay clean!!! And I love the Littlest Pet Shop town in your foyer… I have the same thing!!! Thanks for sharing! I would go insane but I would imagine you just have to learn to deal with it. Makes me feel better about not always having everything perfectly picked up at home. Thank you for posting these. As a home school mom to 4 girlies I have recently started to feel like an absolute housekeeping failure. Even thought about writing a blog post about it today but hopped on over here instead. So glad I did. I am not alone:) BTW…L.O.V.E. your blog, your photos, your craft Thursdays, your decorating style……this just might be my favorite blog! As a mom of 6 kids under the age of 8 who can’t seem to keep anything cleaned in her house, you don’t know how much I needed to read this today. Thanks so much for showing your readers that you are just as “normal” as the rest of us! Thanks again, Susan Whoa….I love the honesty but I think I’m a neat freak in my own house and I’ve created two more after seeing your photos…sigh…my kids never have clothes on their floor…laying other places instead I guess. What I’m not good at is trying to keep everything clean, I’ve given up trying to dust, vacuum and mop as often…working 45-50 hours a week outside the home just doesn’t give me the time to keep up on it all. I’m glad to see we’re all in this mess called life together! Keep being real, keep smiling and keep those colors coming, cause it’s a breath of fresh air to see your posts every.single.time! Especially cute Waffle…love your dog almost as much as my own! I just love you, Meg! You bring a smile to all of our faces and remind us to strive for the best and accept that we’re never going to be perfect! That’s why we have our Father! Thanks, Sister! Thank you! I do not feel alone. God bless you for this. I feel like I clean all day and it still looks TRASHED at the end of the day. I’m all for being real with people…. but its still a hard thing to do myself. You rule the school. Thank you for being real. Thank you so much for this! I have 5 kids myself and with activities and just everyday “things” I can’t seem to get it all done! I know, I should stay off of the computer! haha! I needed this today as I look at the breakfast dishes on the table, trash ready to go out and a downstairs bathroom that seriously needs a good scrubbing with 4 boys in the house! Thanks for a great blog! You rock! It is all about balance, I guess … and your post today certainly puts it into perspective for me. I took a “personal day” from work and dreamed of sewing, decorating, reading, relaxing – even napping. But the floors need to be mopped, the laundry done, the dead mums yanked, the list goes on. Catching up with your blog feeds one need for me: to sit down with a cup of coffee and refocus on getting the balance. Thank you so much and God bless you today. I can soo relate! Ha! I love this! Thank you for sharing. We have been trying to clean so we can put up the Christmas tree. Think it will happen? I’m reading your blog instead of cleaning up my house. I have my Daisy troop here this afternoon and I am supposed to clean up the house for them! Its like inviting a heard of elephants into your living room! Thanks for keeping it real! 1) Totally understand about the Littlest Pet Shop thing! lol Thank You. Thank You. Thank You. This is why I love you!!! We all just need to live life…dirty, ugly, pretty, doesn’t matter…LIVE AND LOVE OUR LIVES!!!! Thanks Megan!!! Inspired by you, I posted pictures of MY messy house on my blog! http://www.pinkpeanutbutter.typepad.com Thank you. I needed this. Makes me feel better. Thank you for this! I found you not that long ago and am hooked. You feel like a long lost friend in the way you are in your life and I love that. I’m a full time working mom of 2 little girls and all day I read about these so called “perfect, have it all together” moms who blog, do so many things I want to do with my girls, decorate their house, thrift shop, cook and bake, and most of all craft. So thank you for showing us that you don’t have it all together and you do what you can do to what you love and sometimes the house looks like a tornado. So what, right? That’s what I try to do with my family each night and weekend, put aside the crazy mess and do what we love. So thank you for this honest post. I was just looking around my house yesterday and thought to myself…we need to have people over to get this place cleaned up…company is the best medicine. Seriously though we have a 6 year old , 4yo, 2yo and 5 month old baby and my husband works in the transportation industry which means he is “bringing christmas to america” and very busy right now. I have to come to terms with the mess and find joy in Jesus… Love it! I’m not the only one!!! Thanks for sharing your “imperfect” life with us 🙂 I needed this. today. My heart has been heavy with guilt over a house I can never make look like the magazines or blogs I browse. thank you. For letting me see your reality so that I can learn to let that guilt go and know that we are all just doing our best. Thank you, thank you, thank you. As a young married sans children, I read a lot of blogging moms (like yourself) who have such pretty homes, great kids, time to craft and cook like Martha, and I look around my little apartment and think: NO. WAY. I am struggling with just one other person to take care of! What a relief to know it’s a struggle even for those with years of experience. Your blog is always such a fun, honest place to visit, and today was no exception. Thank you for letting us know that while life is beautiful, the little messes do exist, and that’s okay. Ah, Meg…you’re the coolest! Thanks for sharing the messy stuff. It makes me feel better. Thank you for this!! Often when I see things in blogland I think “gahh! My house will never be that cute/perfect/awesome!” You are right, I WILL cut myself some slack today. Thank you for your honesty! Opps, don’t know what a carobon copy is. Meant to type carbon 😉 I appreciate you posting this! I only have 3 kids but my house is pretty much a carobon copy of yours. Everything is clean underneath but, oh the clutter. Noone knows how to put anything away but me and I can’t keep up with 5 peoples messes. I love your honesty. That is why I’ve stopped reading so many blogs. They seemed too fake. I like reading something I can relate to. Love it! But I must insist that you refrain from posting any further pictures of MY kitchen without my express wrtten permission! 😉 Megan, thank you!! 🙂 Thank you. I have five kids also and there is no way a house can stay put together all the time. I don’t have a craft room and I craft so you know what my dinning room looks like and I homeschool to boot. I’m showing my husband these pics when he gets home. Just so he knows its not just us. Thank you agian 🙂 stacie from rockentot I have 5 kids too (similar age spread) and I live this post almost daily. Thank you for sharing the REAL of life with us. Thank you for this. My least favorite thing to do is putting away laundry for 4 people it’s never ending. LOVE this post – and your home is such a sign of a house filled with family and life being well lived! It’s good to see what ‘real life’ is like, especially when most of us bloggers share the same thing. -I clean my house top to bottom… I spend the entire weekend [I work full time] cleaning and than by Monday night it is all a mess again. I totally understand what it’s like but ive gotten to the point where I will get to it when I can get to it. -I’m not going to make it a point to have my house super spotless just so I can show it off on my ‘Blog’. That’s not what life [and my blog] is about. you are refreshing. Megan- Hey, who’s been taking photos at my house?!! This is my house, too!!! THANK YOU!!! I feel like such a loser sometimes… Right on…keep it real. I could just give you a big hug right now! It is so refreshing to see messes in blogland! I’m so tired of picture perfect, because my house is not!! I have to boys 5 & 6 and they are MESSY! LOL that is MY craft room except you’d need to add dirty laundry, a sewing machine, serger, bits of fabric and thread pieces everywhere, a pile of fabric, pet food, kitty litter, construction dirt from my husband’s workboots, sawdust from the garage, a goodwill giveaway bag, everyone’s icky play shoes. It looks SO nice when I clean it up… but it never stays clean for long! I love your foyer! That built in bench (I think) is beautiful! Toys just add to the beauty. My two oldest are out of the house. Just a 16 year old here now. Her room looks much like Lauren’s room. And just the other day I was looking for my glue gun in the craft room. Never found it and was pretty disgusted with myself for the mess in there! Thanks for making me see it isn’t just me! thank. you. this is so good. that is my house right now. we are moving tomorrow actually so it is even worse. we came home from thanksgiving and i didn’t feel the need to unpack since we were moving in a week. so we have laundry spilling out of suitcases all over the house. isn’t laundry such a stinkin’ pain?! You are as refreshing as ever . . . even with the mess! Thank you for honesty. you have no idea how much i needed this today. :0) I love that you did this. It’s good for us to tell each other that it’s okay to not be perfect. Thanks for this today and during this season when I put so much pressure on myself! even your messes look happy!!! Thank you so much for your honesty…we all need more of that!! We live in a world (or at least a country) where everything is supposed to be perfect or it isn’t worth anything. I don’t know how you do it but you always seem to post things that really strike a chord with me at just the right time (maybe that is part of your purpose w/God??) In a way you really do have it all together because you are giving your kids a wonderfully fufilling life by doing all the great things you do with them and you are an inspiration to many women that really need it (among a lot of other things!) but those are the things that should be in the “having it all together list” not an immaculate house that doesn’t let anyone have an ounce of creativity. Thanks again for making my day (AGAIN!) so encouraging! I just left a comment, but was laughing when I scrolled back to the pics (think I am going to share with hubby). I think sometimes HE thinks I am the only one…they don’t really know…but I had to laugh at the craft room – looks like mine with the target bags for christmas gifts right? Hahahahaha! GREAT post and so true! Whew! I feel so much better now. Thanks for keeping it real, Meg. I must say, tho, I now have kitchen sink envy ~ here’s mine ~ http://wristonsingermany.blogspot.com/2010/06/things-i-wont-miss.html ~ and I won’t miss it one bit when we move! Oh, and mine would look like yours if it could hold that much! We’re a family of seven too. 😉 Meg – we still love you, that is why we love you – you are REAL! Have been following you over a year and have sent comments and emails, have sent vitamins, did the operation christmas child and thank you SO MUCH for all of it! Again, my girlfriends and I are also REAL, no fake here, all reality. We are all meeting for breakfast this morning and we will discuss the things we all have in common – messy homes, blessed families, overwhelmingness of the holiday and the peacefulness of the holiday, sickness and health. This is all part of life, and if we all find a balance with it, we are all good, and I think that is how we stay grounded is thru each other. So thank you Meg – I love the REALNESS *is that even a word?* Your beautiful blog, your colorful home, crafty Thursdays, messy rooms and all most importantly your HEART! So glad you posted that cause last night I totally cleaned my kitchen and felt great about it, till the hubby came home and we made a huge mess getting out all the Christmas stuff – oh well, tis the season. Hey – saw a craft you might want to do – the GRATEFUL frame/poster – it is totally up your alley! You would love it – let me know if your interested! Happy Friday! Oh wow, so this is how it looks like in a real life! I love it, it is so relaxing and comforting to see that I am not the only one… Thank you Meg, love you:) Thanks for showing me that we are not so different. It’s easy to think that everyone else is doing life perfectly and I am the only one that can’t seem to get it together. Thank you!! I’m a SAHM, my husband works from home, my daughter is homeschooled, my son is in public school, we run a home-based animal rescue and it seems like I can never keep up! Dishes and laundry multiply like Tribbles, Legos and dolls and crayons and paper are everywhere and I’ve finally decided that clutter is just part of our lives. My home is a happy one and that’s all that matters to me. AMEN! This looks a lot like my house on a day to day basis! I am speaking from vast tombs of personal experience here: If I were you I would head straight out the door and get some fresh air!!! There is nothing else more important to be done!!! I may love you even more now. Snap. Just like my house! Thanks for this Meg…I was starting to think it was just me. I’ll consider this post an early Christmas present from Blogland:) Meredy xo My favorite post I’ve read in a long time! Especially this time of year when you see so much pretty and perfect decorating around blog land. This is reality – and a good one! 🙂 Godluvya for being real – my house looks much the same 🙂 you are such an amazing woman, almost everytime i am having a bad day, your blog posts seem to be just for me! i love it. you are truely a very lovely person! I hope to read your blog for years! thanks for being an inspiration to me, and letting all of us know that it is ok to be real! Thanks you for being so honest. Great post!! This looks alot like my house…I thought I was the only one. Thank goodness I am not!! But when you look beyond the mess you see something beautiful…a house that looks lived in and loved in and that’s all that matters!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting this! it is nice to know i’m not the only mum that isn’t on top of the cleaning every minute of the day! Meg you crack me up. I feel like writing posts like this…just to show what’s real. 🙂 I don’t have the following you do, and no one thinks I have it all together! haha Your transparency is great. And I feel your laundry pain. I might have to show my husband this post! teehee Great post! Your home is still beautiful even if it is a a little messy…you have 5 kids, cut yourself some slack 🙂 Can’t wait to see your Christmas decorations! Oh wow, that is awesome! I have been following your blog for months, and love, love, love it! The color, creativity, warmth, care, and down-to-earthness (is that even a word? – somehow don’t think so) of it continue to inspire and delight me! It’s my favorite way to start the day, a good cup of coffee and some whatever (while refereeing my 2 kids grade one and two while they take way……..too long to finish their breakfasts, we’re going to miss the bus again!…..blah, blah, blah) Have never posted a comment on a blog before, not once, not ever, but I just HAD to applaud your home, BLESS THIS MESS!!! From Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, warmest wishes, beth So I’m not the only one that ALWAYS has a pile of clothes stacked on my daughters’ dresser. My goodness they have a never ending pile of clothes that need to be washed/folded/put away. Aww how sweet of you to show your house to all of us! You are such a sweetie and I just adore your take on life and how you write about it! Thanks. I just left a party at a perfect house with labels on everything and all the Christmas decorations up…..came home to dirty dishes on the stove and in the sink. My little dachshund got lost yesterday in my 13yo daughter’s closet. I could not find her for 30 minutes…too many clothes on the floor 🙂 I think the one room that drives me the most insane is “my” little girl’s room. They have drawers in their beds and they are always open and overflowing. We can barely keep them shut. I saw your girls room with the overflowing drawers and just sat here and smiled. We never do see anyone else’s mess… in blogland or in real life. We think we are the only ones. LOVE this post…and thank you for sharing. I have four kids. I find that the house can’t stay cleaned for more than a couple hours tops! It can drive me insane at times, but I’m really trying to let it roll. Life….it’s messy. love this!
my nephew Hunter gave me five minutes to take some senior pictures of him. and after two full days we packed up and left for home. our first stop on the way home was still in atlanta. these are the Cameli women. there was a jute box with any song imaginable and the kids played "CRAZY FROG!" back on the road. i think i have mentioned before that i get car sick? we made it home. i am glad the traveling is over with for awhile. and we are glad we went. the end. Well put, sir, well put. I’ll ceartinly make note of that. Awww, I’m so jealous you were THAT close to Broken Arrow and Tulsa. DH and I are from there (and miss it terribly), but the military has taken us elsewhere. Okay, I cut you some slack when you came to Atlanta a few weeks ago to Coke, but COME ON…Twice in a month and you think you need to spend it with family and not all your Atlanta bloggers!!! No, I’m glad you had a great Thanksgiving, but you’re going to have to get yoself back here to take pictures of us…can I get an amen out there ladies!!! I fell in love with your photography a couple of years ago and I was so sad to discover you were in Kansas, boo hoo. I found a great gal locally, who is “just a mom who likes to take pictures” too, but I would still love a session with you. Perhaps, you can sweet talk your hubby into an Easter trip back east!!! You can sign me up for your first session! Love ya Great, great, great pictures… and you are so close!! I live in NW Arkansas. oh my word… loved this post! I read a lot, but hardly comment. 🙂 My eyes teared up at the Alabama State sign… my home state! I was there for Thanksgiving… and then the Broken Arrow/Tulsa sign… my hometown now! I’m sure I drove the same highways as you with my own 3 little monkeys this Turkey break. Love love LOVE reading your blog. You’re so fun! We are serious road trippers too and I also get majorly motion-sick. My “secret” is transderm v patches (scopalmine ?) I can read with these things on – no sleepiness, just a dry mouth. It’s made a world of difference in our travels! Hope it helps… Good LORD! I take back what I said in the last (most recent post). I bow down to you and your level of patience. lol Just kidding. Looks like a fantastic Thanksgiving and well worth the drive. wow! what a fun filled thanksgiving! I used to love road trips when I was growing up. They were some of my favorite vacations! that pizza place looks AMAZING. I love pizza…i could eat it every day! Meg, I see you came through my beautiful state of alabama. I just have one thing to say (in response to that hat in one of the pictures) -WAR EAGLE!!! Glad you had such sweet family time. Even if Alabama did lose! Looks like a fun trip. (well except for the car sickness and the feet on your head part, lol.) Fabulous! I love your personal stories. I have been trying to figure out if I should (or should not) put personal stories on my website/blog… then I said to myself, “hey, why not?”… really… who cares! So many opinions in this world. haha My youngest two fight over who gets to sleep on the floor when we stay at a hotel. Great pictures. Apples to Apples is the best! tell your daughter that i LOVE her ring. Road trips rock. Looks like much fun! You are still making me feel better about our decision to drive rather than fly. Especially since I’m not into letting strange women feel me up or take scans of my girl parts. You are so funny! Glad you had a great time…yeah, I know, minus the feet, ha! i love apples to apples too!!! fun game 🙂 first time i ever played i won: the adjective i won on was “manly” and my card was “Demi Moore”… hahaha!! i’ll never forget that!! You shoulda stopped at our house….free bathroom, snacks, and conversation!!!!! We live so close to the BA/Tulsa sign. cameli’s is the best!! there huge slices are delicious and affordable!! looks like so much fun! great pics…thanks for sharing. Hiya! First time posting a message so hello there, I check your blog every day! I went to school with Ashley Campbell and found your blog thru hers! Love that sign of BA and Tulsa (I know exactly where it’s at) you took since I grew up in BA (and still live close by in Owasso)! That’s one huge piece of pizza! Looks like you guys had a great time!!! This year was the first time we’ve traveled for Thanksgiving. I feel like I’m SO behind on Christmas stuff now!!! I’m definitely gonna have to try that pizza place. We live about an hour and a half from Atlanta and I always like to take the kids up there at least once during the holiday season. We have such a small mall down here so it’s nice to get a taste of the ‘city life’ a little bit 🙂 I’m from Atlanta but have never heard of that pizza place! I’ll have to try it next time I’m there. Looks like a WONDERFUL trip, one that had the makings of lifelong memories. So much fun! Merry Christmas to all the Duerksens! This WAS a serious road trip!!! Love the pics…can you send a piece of that pizza to california?? yes please!!! 🙂 I agree with you and would rather drive our family of seven anywhere. Even though it’s crazy and I can’t stand public bathrooms and the kids will bicker over dumb stuff in the back seat. Your pictures really capture the why-would-you-ever-do-that question. Why? Because it’s crazy fun! So happy you posted your road trip…we are prepping for our longest yet…from Louisiana to AZ…eek. Well you know that road sign in Oklahoma makes me a bit sad….but I doubt your whole family would want to stop by my house to chat and drink coffee! I love this post! reminds me of my childhood traveling with my 5 borthers in a HUGE van. We named her Big Bertha and she smelled like farts and McDonald’s…sorry for that bad imagine I just put in your head. So many memories! PIZZA!!!!! thats what i call a pizza slice, You have made me so excited – im going to las vegas next year and huge pizza sliices is top of my list! You all went through my town in Oklahoma! I pass that BA/Tulsa sign every other day-fun! Aren’t road trips the best? I always learn so much about my kids when we’re stuck in the car together for long periods of time. Family bonding at it’s best! That pizza was enormous! You look like you are having so much fun…hee hee;) There are always feet on me. (not just in the car) What is up with that??? and i would much rather fly. Awwww, those road trips and hotels and swimming pools and family togetherness are some of my FAVORITE family times. Pics are great. My husband likes to drive too, and we did the Chicago to Atlanta trip last summer and it was great (do Lookout Mountain next time…Chatanooga, TN, totally worth it and amazing pictures). My pc crashed, but the upside is 3 days of Meg posts! Enjoy December. You didn’t take the girls to the American Girl store in Atlanta!? 😉 Looks like good times! We are going to try a road trip with all of ours soon…..im scared,lol! wow – my crew is nowhere near readay for a trip of that magnitude (though redbox would sure help!) looks like you had fun though – isn’t it always the greatest coming home? Wow! Super trip!!! I must try that pizza place next time in Atlanta… that slice of pizza could feed me for 3 days!! :o) WOW…what a slice of pizza. That loaded car was CRAZY. My mom switched to ginger for motion sickness…she swears by it over Dramamine…at least for her. Long trip…but I’m sure so many memories. I LOVE Apples to Apples. And your husband is a rockstar…that’s a lot of driving. That is the biggest slice of pizza… I’ve never seen a slice that big before! Lovely. You’ve inspired me to start some road trips with my 4 kiddos…now I just have to get my husband on board 🙂 That is one big slice of pizza! I hear ya on the car sickness. awful. My family always drove – every summer vacation, no matter where we went, drove. But I loved it. Even through all the fighting 🙂 Thanks for sharing all of this! that is the only way to cook a turkey omg Meg. i can’t believe you have a sign of Broken Arrow – I can’t wait to show my husband. We lived very near Broken Arrow when we first got married 21 years ago – my oldest daughter who is almost 20 was born there!!! It’s a long way from Detroit!!! So glad you had a great visit away from home! It was great having you all come here for Thanksgiving. It was very special to be able to have some quality family time together. The basement is perfect for times when we have extra kids who love Xbox, Wii and Rock Band — oh and American Girl dolls!! Thanks for taking Hunter’s pix – they turned out great! See you at Christmas 🙂 Hi Meg! That pizza looks sooooo good right now!
we pulled up to craig's sister's house to a classic song by fire house….ha ha ha. (did you click on that song? that hair is unreal!!) 12 hours in the car with all seven of us. 6 movies….10 fights…..5 bathroom stops….but we made it to atlanta….good times. we were welcomed with open arms. a very yummy beer. Heh, a drink or two would be a good reward. Congrats on finishing one long road trip. Indeed, trying to keep the peace in a car with kids can be tricky. Well, nevertheless, I hope you found some fun during the trip! We’ve made that drive several times – same route – from Georgia to KC (my sister’s house) and back. One stop we enjoyed was at Cave in Rock in southern Illinois – you take the ferry across the Ohio from kentucky (going north). The kids will never let me stop and see the zoo in St. Louis (it’s free for pete’s sake!) We live in a great country. Yes, I was also going to say,”only 10 fights?” My kids had about that many just during our Advent reading and activity tonight. Ugh. 🙂 Only 10 fights? thats amazing! fun pictures! i don’t think i’ve ever commented on here but i love your blog! 🙂 Loved all the pics. i’m so glad that the whole trip ended with a really good beer. oh baby! that is a full backseat! I think i’m the only 32 year old without a cell phone…and i like it that way. 🙂 I assume the phone with the zebra case is yours and not Craig’s. Great pictures. I kinda felt like I was on the trip with you guy..especically when I found myself calling out “he’s touching me!”. Oh by the way, “Love of a Lifetime” was our wedding dance song. Love it! We play it in our home often and we too sing at the top of our voices. Nothing but the best! Funny. I just did a post on our 21 hour road trip with four boys and a dog. We went 40mph at most through most of Idaho in a blizzard on ice. Glad we aren’t the only crazy ones. I would need a beer or 5… so the building in nashville with the two skinny towers on top? people around here know it as the batman building. 🙂 because i know you wanted to know that. 🙂 glad you made it safely through all that rain!! Only 5 toilet stops?!! Wow you did well. We can do that many in an afternoon at the shops with my 4 little kids. Only 5 pee stops…impressive:) We just had our trip back to IL. I need a laptop or ipad or something. To watch a movie would help tremendously! In the first picture of the back seat I thought Talby was in Annie’s carseat…figured they were happier that way. ha ha Then in the second picture (of the back) I realized that what I thought was a carseat was actually a blanket. 🙂 i have that same blue blanket wth snowflakes & snowmen! you. are. brave! great post…love family road trips!!! Nothing quite like a classic family road trip! We’ve made many yearly treks from Texas to Washington state…32 hours in the car…it’s like we just never learned! I’m not sure which is better…open arms…or a good beer! Wow! Nothing can dampen your spirits! After 12 hours in the car, I’d need a beer. And I’m not a beer drinker. More of a wine girl. We recently drove 6 hours to Belgium and I thought that was bad! 🙂 OK, let me re-phrase that first question: OK, two questions: You were a mere 9 hours away….hey, weren’t you JUST in Atlanta? THAT WAS FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are brave that is a long drive with 5 kids. But road trips are always kind of fun…at least in theory. Dude, you drove RIGHT. PAST. ME! I’m 45 minutes from Nashvile!!! Next time. Oh wow. This gives me hope for when we go home at Cmas! 15 hours in the van with all five of us!! I so wish I could read in the car. Looks like it was fun in spite of the crazy weather! 🙂 I love a good roadtrip!!! Glad you made it safely!!! And that song….oh my word!!! You are sooo right….high school dances 😉 LOVE IT!!!!!! Love all the pics, especially the Nashville skyline……I miss that city. We have made several trips that have been that long in the car and next road trip I am breaking out the camera more, I almost felt like I was road trippin with y’all. Glad you made it there safe and I am sure had a great holiday. Ahhh…. roadtrips…. You can’t beat ’em for making memories. Seeing your pics brought back memories of our trips out west. You’ve captured the essence of what it’s like on the road. Glad you made it safely!! Ahhh the joy of visiting family far away on the holidays! It’s always an adventure, isn’t it :)! Makes for great stories around the dinner table. Thanks for bringing us along for the trip! Fun, fun, fun! love the pics…i know i know i always write that…lols….I have the same phone cover….looks like smeone is letting their hair grow out…very handsome… We make the road trip from LA to San Francisco a few times a year so I am so relating even though it’s only half the trip you made. I feel like we’re making memories…I think it’s a good thing 🙂 I just want to say, I will never complain about our five hour drive to the city ever again. You have changed my attitude. There are only 4 of us and we only went 5 hours to the Oregon Coast (well, should have been 5, took 8 getting there) and we just about killed each other. And I can’t count the potty stops. Phew! Oh and the charging – it’s the end of the world if my little one forgets her DS charger. The. End. So what is it with the husband having the data plan? That would be our picture, also…hmmmm…. But I cannot stand to have stuff on the dash – he uses it like a desk or something, and I’m always clearing it off! i love the heart shaped lights in the night picture meg! fun! this looks exactly like our road trip to san diego last week… chloe in the back, stripping down/nauseous/nobody allowed to look at or speak to her… wireless head phones and ipods galore…but, sadly, matthew meade made it to my mailbox AFTER we got home 🙁 now i’ll surely never be able to read it. Love the pictures. We drove from McPherson to Chicago and I wish I had the trip in pics like you. I also took the Matthew Mead book. Loved it!! I know it sounds crazy, but i LOVE road trips!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them!! Loved all the pictures in this post but one thing just sticks out.. I have the same phone cover as Meg Duerksen. 🙂 Hahaha! Looks like a fun trip! Oh, Firehouse. Crazy memories there, but at least my hair never looked QUITE that bad! LOL. Ok you were just minutes from my house! Well Actually I am about 35 miles west of Nashville. I love the Firehouse song. My kids call it the Old People music! That hair is hysterical! Speaking of beer my family would like to say THANK YOU! Your frozen Margaritas have become like a staple when a family gathering happens. Meals are planned around the goal of having those Margaritas. We try different kinds of beer. Everyone is in love so thanks for sharing that one! We do twelve hour trips several times a year, I SO know what that’s like! He he…you needed that beer, didn’t you? I have one of those…”I’m going to throw up” girls, too. Sigh. Exhausting, isn’t it? Glad you made it safe. way to go! beer sounds nice! wait, is 8am too early!? i love nashville…but never been to atlanta! I <3 the Nashville skyline. 🙂 I love those tall suspension bridges driving through St. Louis! They don’t have any like that in Atlanta. I’m sorry you had such crummy weather. I took all the good weather with my family and me to Florida for the holiday and managed to bring none of it back. Boo hiss. Oh, wow – that is a long road trip. Your “charging station” made me laugh! would you roll on the floor, dying laughing, if i told you that when paul and i got married my brother and his guitar-playing friend (who were in a “rock band” together) sang that song AT our wedding…like IN the church. and i almost cried. 🙂 Hi Meg! 12hrs, YIKES! When we drive to TN to visit family it’s a 6.5hr drive, that seems about all I can handle. I probably would never last on a cross-country road trip! 🙂 we drove to atlanta, georgia for thanksgiving. but our first stop was 2 hours into the drive….ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK.
we dropped grandma off and drove onto my sister's house. in the morning my sister filled us up with coffee and pumpkin bread i live in winnipeg manitoba (canada) and my husband is the HUGEST jay hawks fan. its kinda cute actually. anyway. i’ll have to show him these pics…he’ll just sigh. Did you see the Gonzaga Bulldogs? I think they were there, too. SO glad that you had a great trip. You are brave to drive all that way…but I agree, flying would have been much worse. There is just nothing like a game at Allen Field House!! Rock Chalk Jayhawk! You haven’t lost your mind so I guess it was a good trip:) That far in the car with 5 kids is taking on a lot of noise! LOL! You should have gone up there when Jeff’s team was playing KU. He could have given you seats behind the bench since we did not go with him so fun! love all those bright, bold colors!! Looks like a super duper family time and there’s nothing that beats that. Beware of the Phog! Good times! I’m not sure I can read your blog anymore… 🙂 M-I-Z! Rock Chalk!!! Love it! Man, you guys are awesome parents! Candy, you are ageless!!!!!! That will be you, Meg! Hope to see you over Christmas…love ya! Oh how I miss slumber parties. How great to have such a big family. That first picture of you & Annie is adorable! You should frame it. I wish you would tell us these things BEFORE your trip!!!! I would have loved to have met you at a rest stop or taco bell along the way…to think a celebrity was SOOOOOOO close.. Nothing like a great KU b-ball game! I’m a born and bread MU Tiger, but I DO love KU (my big brother was a Jayhawk 🙂 Looks like a lot of fun 🙂 jealous! Oh how I miss those Rock Chalk days….in the 70’s it was so much easier to get into games as a student…well really easier for anyone. That place is magical when the chant starts. Rock Chalk! There’s nothing like going to Allen Fieldhouse, is there? Love it! That looks awesome…..so many smiling faces!!! Glad you had a great thanksgiving!!! ROCK CHALK! I think it is great that you have such a fun family filled life (outside the blog) and then you share some of it with us. You do a lot of things and then we find out about it afterwards…good boundaries (in my opinion). See? You DO like sports!!! Hope you enjoyed Atlanta and all the holiday traffic!!! so if you ever come BACK to atlanta sans coke a cola shinanigans sans big family holiday and schedule photo shoots I am so all in! can’t wait to find out what you did in my town! when i see colorful things I always think of you! I love the pictures of the Jayhawk game—looks like so much fun!! Love it! So much fun!!! I especially love the photo of Annie clapping wildly. We should all have photos of ourselves with THAT much joy plastered all over our faces! 🙂 Im from Missouri so you know what I have to say about the Jayhawks…….hahaha!! Just kidding, I hope you had a wonderful holiday. I cant’ wait to hear about the rest of your trip 🙂 Sean is turning into Craig!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wooo hooooo!!! Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!! I’m lovin’ it! LOVE it!! Those are great pics Meg. I feel like I was there. Can’t wait to see Atlanta. I hope you show those. I’ve had that city on my mind…job prospect for Honey. Looks like soo much fun!! How fun! That is a long drive but it sure seems like ya’ll made it into great memories! Childhood memories with cousins are the best kind. Your kids are blessed! I still think about times with cousins as a kid and I’m 33 now 🙂 So glad you had a good, safe trip. x Rock…Chalk…Jayhawk! That is so cool. Hours of a car trip…not so much. I hope you had a great Thanksgiving. I am jealous-I have wanted to go to a Jayhawk game and have never been able to go! I am a grandma myself-HA! Looks like you had a blast-fun family memories. |
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Taryn - Oh my….i’ve got to stop reading these!:) Just refer back to my comment on your other post (Attention please). I think my comment was like the 200th:). Hang in there!
Laura - How is putting up ads on your blog any different from inviting people into your home for Pampered Chef, BeautiControl, Creative Memories, Premier Jewelry, Scentsy, Mary Kay (the list goes on and on)? Blog guests enjoy the ambiance just like the party goers. Compensation to the hostess (blogger) should not be seen as a negative so much as a necessary in order to host in the first place. If you don’t want to be asked to purchase from the catalog, don’t show up and eat the food.
There’s a certain ick factor, centering around self-promotion and being compensated for services, that doesn’t seem to exist as much for more tangible things.
You are providing a service, whether or not you’ve classified it as such. You are an entertainment blog writer. You write autobiographical nonfiction about your life in a soft copy format. That doesn’t make what you do less ‘real’ and thus less deserving of compensation.
You seem to be someone with integrity, from what I’ve gathered blog-stalking you for almost two years. You seem to be clear about your priorities, so I think that any ad stuff you do will be presented with the same level of integrity we’ve seen so far. Don’t shill for something you don’t believe in, and you’ll be good to go.
Kelley - I love your blog! Props to you for creatively providing for your family.
Becky - I love your blog. Tons of “mom” sayings are going through my head… like, “You get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit!” And, “If you want it to be different, then YOU go(make a blog).” And, “Money doesn’t grow on trees!” People can tell you what they want your blog to be, but your blog reflects you life (so well!) So how can people be telling you how to blog, without telling you how to live your life?! Blessings on how real, loving, and transparent you are.
Julie - I need to ask santa for a couple dozen more hockey masks…
Sorry for the drama. Sorry that you have to defend yourself. On your blog. That you write.
This made me think of a post Kristen wrote a while back, dealing with the same sort of quandary…
http://www.rageagainsttheminivan.com/2010/07/elephant-on-sidebar.html
I like you. Ads or no ads.
Australian blog stalker - I’ve been a blog stalker for a long time and think I probably represent an average reader – I’ll keep reading even with the blog monetized, so long as sponsored (or similar) posts are clearly labelled as such (BTW, was there a mistake in the wording of the Sara Lee post – cos it said you were going to an ad-free site, but then it was a sponsored post??). One of the biggest selling points about your blog, Meg, is that you post ORIGINAL CONTENT, EVERY DAY. If I can make a suggestion: if you want the blog to remain popular, most readers are fairly loyal and will stay with you, even with your blog monetized, so long as you continue to provide new photos and new blog posts each day. This is key. And if the blog is monetized, I’m hoping the finances are there to enable you to achieve this on most days. I get what you’re saying, that your youngest may not be so willing to pose any longer! And that you have less free time to actually do the projects that can then be photographed and turned into blog content, but hopefully the extra income can be used to drive new content (eg. paying you for the time it takes to produce an original post, or paying for materials required to make something etc).
It’s always a rocky road when you monetize your blog. Don’t sweat the small number of readers who leave. Most stay if you maintain a good quality blog. And your good stuff is truly you and your family. I remember a little while back, Lauren hadn’t appeared in photos for a long time and then there she was one day, smiling. I actually cried! And I don’t even know you and your family.
Hoping this is helpful. If you feel it’s more mean than constructive, feel free to delete. But just wanted you to know that the core of your blog is what people love and they’ll keep reading if you keep it up.
Lori - Meg, you write about “whatever” you want to write about and its all right with me. I just like YOU so I am game for what you want to talk about. I look forward to your growing and changing as you get used to not having little kids any more. That’s where I have been for a while, and it takes some getting used to! But it is so positive too, as you learn to follow some of your interests without feeling MOMMY GUILT! I don’t think of your Sara Lee or Gap posts as strictly adverts…I actually love a good recommendation to save me the trial and error. As long as you believe in the product, I don’t care if you recommend it! I realize not everyone feels this way, but I just wanted to throw my support in…I love your blog and wish that I lived close enough to you to be friends and hire you to take photos of my family!
Patti - THANK YOU for giving to Olga- you are amazing!!! Just wanted to drop in and tell you that personally:) Love, Patti
saj - this is sad. i agree with susan above. i don’t want to read a sara lee advertisement marked as an ad-free blog post.
Amanda Ferguson - Meg, Is this link your new blog location, or is it only for certain blog posts?
I didn’t really understand the reason for the other one is all 😀
Love your blog!
Susan - ad-free?
Meg, I really miss your old blogging days when you just blogged about your family. It seems that lately those types of honest, fun posts are few and far between, and the rest of the posts are about people’s shops on etsy, Sara Lee, or the Gap. I still love your blog, but I really hate that it’s gotten so commercial and “My Charming Kids”-esque.
ky - Meg, I love, love, love your messy house post! I didn’t leave a comment there cos I didn’t want to be the 258th person. Do you really read all the comments??? Anyway, it was priceless and probably my most favourite post ever! I’m so glad you had the guts to be real and make all us other Mum’s feel normal. I only have 2 kids and a small house, but I still struggle with keeping it tidy…every single day! Love the furniture in all the kids’ rooms too! Yes I noticed it behind all the clothes.
Really enjoyed your thanksgiving trip post too! Great photos and I love the fun you all have. There IS something to be said for big families.
Hope you have a great day!