Disclaiming

It's four thirty in the morning, and ever since I nursed the baby an hour ago, I haven't been been able to sleep. What better time to blog?

To quote words I wrote before, "My blog isn't a personal journal or a ... forum for matters of theology, philosophy, parenting methods, or diaper choices, and it likely never will contain anything other than a glut of snapshots."

As I rearranged the glut of snapshots I've loaded recently, I had to laugh. Or was it a groan? Blogs are a patchwork, at best, and that's okay most of the time. There's really no way to give a seamless view of a life, and even if there was, I wouldn't want to. For me, the problem develops when the blog creator presents a false view, either deliberately or unconsciously, of herself or of whom the strange sphere of her electronic world includes. Occasionally, this happens here. Because I choose to share the substantial joy of the ordinary and not much else, shotsnaps tilts crazily to one side, which leads me to this:

As I type, my house looks like a train just plowed into the side, through the middle, and out the other end. This week has been a steady spiral downward in terms of housekeeping. The dishes are half done, the floor is unswept and unmopped, and I still need to put the baby's winter clothes into the basement. The smell of a Piper Who Shall Not Be Named And Who Already WAS Potty-trained pervades the downstairs, and it is not a pretty smell. There are many other heaps and hills I need not mention, and let's not mention the state of the basement, shall we? You know those mom-blogs that show a picture of a charmingly "messy" room only to show the gleaming after picture? [You know who you are, women!*] Well, let me just say that the messes round these parts wouldn't charm the warts off a frog, and I'd NEVER keep them for posterity.

Now that I've got that off my chest, you can enjoy the shiny pictures.

*And I'm not picking on those before/after pictures I've seen from several of you, either. I wish my befores were as charming, but they happen to be a bit more horrifying dramatic instead.