This weekend, a fellow 5 Mama gave me the gift of paying my way to attend a moms’ conference. The five of us went together, and it was so life-giving! Instead of getting a hotel room, we commuted back and forth each day.

Every morning, I’d sit and listen to the stories of the chaos that welcomed my friends when they walked in the doors of their homes each night. I didn’t have much to say. All I really needed to do when I got home was wash a few dishes (my husband lovingly decided to use paper plates for dinner), empty the clean dishwasher, and restock the diaper bag for the next day. My home has been pretty messy since baby number 5 came along, so it wasn’t much different than when I am home.

My friends’ stories made me smile. One friend walked all over granola on her kitchen floor and forced herself not to clean up as she stepped over mounds of stuff left around the house. Another friend said she found children, crumbs, and popcorn in her bed when all she wanted to do was collapse into bed for the night. One of the other mamas found out her son had been sick while she was away.

Fast forward to day three. About an hour after I got home, I was putting a full trash bag on the steps that lead to the side door and our basement. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an unidentified object on the wall near the ceiling. For a second, I thought it was some weird, furry, spider or other creepy creature. Then I saw two more blobs, one high up on the other wall and one low. “What IS that?” I thought one of the big kids had fallen back into preschool mode where wall creations were fun. Then I saw it. At the bottom of the stairs was a lid to a jar, next to it, the jar. If one of my sons had emptied it, he would have either left it on the counter or put it back in the cupboard.

My daughter, Joy, wanted to be responsible-substitute-Mama. She thought we recycled this type of container. Now yes, we are supposed to, but this mama will not work that hard at cleaning something just to put it in the recycle bin. I fail all of future humanity and throw these particular type of sticky, oily jars right in the garbage.

When I do recycle something, I do throw it in down those same stairs, putting a spin on it so it will hopefully land in the basement where the recycle bins are. But I always put the lid back on containers before I throw them down two flights of stairs and make sure the containers are empty and clean. My daughter thought it was ok to throw an almost empty jar down the stairs and then toss the lid down after it.

Any guesses what was on my walls? Yup, those three teaspoon sized globs were ooey gooey peanut butter. I told my husband and then said, “I heard Joel wake up, so I’m going to get him up from his nap and deal with the walls later.” When I went downstairs I saw my husband with paper towels standing at the bottom of the stairs. I said, “Wait! Let me take a picture for the blog!” That’s what going to a moms’ conference with speakers who are bloggers and writers will do to you!

Enjoy my blurry picture 🙂