{No More Perfect Moms} Opening our imperfect home

My kids are like company leaches, becoming
attached to anyone who comes in our door. 

"Do you want a beautiful home? Sure, take care of the physical space you have. Maintain it, clean it on occasion, and keep it organized enough to find what you need to find. More than anything, however, focus on the people living inside those walls. When you get right down to it, it's those flawed yet precious family relationships that make your house truly beautiful." 

{From "No More Perfect Moms" by Jill Savage}

"Who's coming over for dinner?" is a popular question from my 5 1/2-year-old daughter. Pretty sure she's working on teaching her 3-year-old brother the same question. Many times I'll tell them Daddy will be home after work and just the four of us are going to eat. But plenty of other days I do get to tell her which friends are coming over for dinner.

Truthfully, we like having friends over for dinner, to watched a basketball or baseball game on TV, or to play games. Just this past Saturday, we did all three with a couple of friends. They came over to watch the Murray State vs. Southeast Missouri basketball game on ESPNU. We ate chicken fajitas with Spanish rice during the game and then played two games of Ticket to Ride after my kids were in bed.

It was a great night, but, you know, it wasn't perfect. Truth is, homes don't have to be perfect to be enjoyed and opened. In fact, it's probably better if they weren't. Take Saturday night,  for example, the kitchen did get swept, but that would have happened regardless of whether friends were coming over. {I have a 3-year-old boy who makes a trail of crumbs wherever he eats and I was tried of stepping in whatever was sitting near his chair.} And, actually, that's not even the whole story: My husband and daughter swept while I finally showered at 2:30 in the afternoon.

I made the easiest chicken fajita recipe possible in my Crock Pot {Hey, it's delicious too!} and cooked an easy Spanish rice recipe on the stove top and left it simmer once our friends arrived and we went to the basement to watch basketball. Not long after we sat down, I remembered I have a delicious {and easy ... catching on the trend in my kitchen?!} white cheese recipe I wished I'd thought of earlier when I was at the grocery store buying the ingredients I needed for the fajitas and rice.

Did I mention our friends had to walk through our laundry room to get from the kitchen to the basement? And then walk through again to get from the basement to the kitchen. And back again. And again. Oh, and there was a shirt still drying hanging in the door frame between the kitchen and laundry room. I did clear a path through the laundry room by stacking on top of the washer and dryer the three baskets with five loads of clean laundry awaiting my attention to be folded.

Immediately upon us all taking our seats in the basement as my husband turned on ESPNU, my kids literally were climbing all over our friends. They're like that. They like people. They aren't shy. And, well, really ... I don't have much other explanation for the climbing on someone else's back. But our friends are good sports. They let them climb. And then our friend Kristen read them books, taught them songs, sang said songs who knows how many times, and broke up a couple arguments between my kids. Meanwhile, us three other adults watched the game, giving Kristen replay highlights courtesy our DVR when necessary.

Sometime during the first half, we paused the game and filled our plates in the kitchen then returned to the basement, where our kids claimed {probably wisely} the only two flat table-like surfaces for their plates while us four adults ate from the plates balanced on our knees. But, hey, this way we could keep watching our beloved Racers, who struggled through the first half and then picked it up behind in time during the second half to claim a victory.

Homemaking and hospitality are kind of like that. There were {and sometimes still are} struggles for me figuring out that my home and life don't have to be perfect to invite others in. But once they're here and real life is shared I feel like I've come away with a win. And it's my hope my friends do too.
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This is yet another post in an ongoing series about how God's teaching me to embrace imperfection. You can read my previous posts inspired by "No More Perfect Moms" here. I received a free PDF copy of Jill Savage's "No More Perfect Moms" as part of the book's launch team, but I truly want to embrace this message and the opinions and experiences are really mine. Learn more about ordering the book here. I wrote this post to link up to Jill Savage's blog, but I posted it an entire week early. Ah ... embracing imperfection! So I've linked up now a week later. Want more? Subscribe to get "Insights" in your inbox. Or follow me on Twitter.