I would love a house with an empty front entry, but that’s not our house.

Back in the day I used to have a car or a truck that was always spotless and a room that was only ever slightly cluttered, but never got out of control.

Single life was lonely but extremely predictable. When you don’t really have to adapt to anyone but yourself there’s nothing much to fight about.

Want to watch football? Watch football!
Want to have a nap? Have a nap!
Uncomfortable hanging out with people? Go home!

But things have changed…

I would safely estimate that there are more than thirty pairs of gloves somewhere in our home. I still haven’t figured out how to wear more than one pair at a time, so I think I have one pair still, unless my emergency kit has my old ski gloves in it?

I moved my operations centre for outer wear to my office so I wouldn’t have to wade through accessories to get to the jacket that I wear most days.

I’m feeling slightly hypocritical as I look to two items I would like to pretend I don’t collect… my shoes and my hats. I seem to have a thing for shoes and hats, but gloves? Only one pair here. Also my shoes are in my office and not the front entry so I feel justified in continuing my rant about the front entry.

Every day it’s the same, the little girls come home from school, walk out of their coats/ boots/ snow pants/ backpacks, grab a snack and head downstairs. Eventually mom or I walk past the front entry, open the basement door and holler “Girls! Come get your dang stuff out of the front entry!”

I recently spent an hour adding hooks for backpacks, jackets, and snow pants in the girls closet but it lasted about one day, which is probably why I took so long to get around to it. I don’t know if I’m up for the prolonged siege of organizing the little girls closet (not that I’ve ever organized the little girls anything now that I think about it, thank you Erin), but the next time Neela comes home it will be the ol’ “Open the closet door, toss everything in, and try to shut the door QUICK!”

Until the next unsuspecting fool happens by, which is normally me. “Hey why won’t the closet door shut fully? Oh right, it’s crammed full of stuff…” At this point I look both ways to see if anyone is watching then slowly push it as closed as it will go without breaking it.

This is just life with kids maybe, but another problem has emerged…

We have loads of Venue people over at least three times a week. I mean loads of people from Team Nights to afterparties to small group Shoes everywhere! Can’t find your coat? Neither can I! Can’t find your kids? (Try downstairs:)

We recently bought three more mats for shoes in our front entry to preserve our hardwood flooring from being destroyed. We already had two.

Having people over always leaves a bit of a mess, not unlike having children. People themselves have problems too (maybe you’ve noticed) and we all end up asking someone to clean up after us in some way or another.

There is a verse in the Bible that reminds me of the mess: “Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest”, and I know that we’ve stumbled upon a secret….

It’s easy to isolate yourself and keep everything just perfect, but I’m realizing that you can tell our family values at times by how many shapes, sizes, and styles of shoes are on the mats in our front entry.

Sure there’s a little chaos from time to time, but at least we know who it’s for….