IDHTBPTBB

The Nester has reminded us that It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect To Be Beautiful and she's challenged us to post our imperfections and share them. Finding imperfections around here is not a problem. I started snapping pictures this morning and had to make myself stop. You don't have all day, after all, to read about the imperfections that surround me. But if I didn't put it here, you might never see it on account of House Beautiful hasn't been able to reach me for a photo shoot yet.

Here's my new friend. I call him Darth. Benjy calls him Dark Side. He has been residing in my bedroom where he usually hides from Emma The Dog. I don't mind sharing my room with Darth. And plus, he likes my window mistreatments. He's beautiful because he makes Benjy use this dark side voice when he comes down to play.

This is the boys' bathroom. These are the beach towels that hang in the boys' bathroom. That's a shower curtain mistreatment hanging by the towels in the boys' bathroom. Now that the pool is up in the backyard, Camden the Bath Boy swims and takes a bath about 167 times a day. He's a clean youngin. These towels are summertime beautiful.

This is my barely-sanded-because-I-hate-the-sound-of-sandpaper-and-then-painted table. I took great pride in this when I first finished it. Now, the boys have taken it over. If Eaglescout isn't piling his magazines on it, then the boys are using it for a Star Wars hanger. (How do you spell that...hanger???hangar???) Currently the Star Fighters are off fighting the Dark Side, so the control tower is the only thing happening here now. Beautiful, huh?

Now these window mistreatments are my very favorite. They're cheap cheap cheap, made of burlap and that cute pom pom fringe and about 933 hot glue sticks. And these fans of my favorite window mistreatments are Benjy's Lego guys. They don't live here all the time, but they do like to be lined up and this is as good a place as any, I suppose. Beautiful in the orderly way Benjy lines up things around the house.

My guest room is rarely used. What a waste. So I have adopted it for folding and sorting the boys' laundry. I can watch HGTV or Fox news or Law and Order or the Weather Channel while I work. And if I'm not in here, then the boys are. They pull out the long-forgotten Rescue Heroes and play for about 2 minutes. And then they leave the sad and lonely Rescue Heroes perched and waiting for an emergency. Beautiful simply because the boys and I have repurposed this wasted space. And all of it is quite imperfect. But, hey, how many of us could actually live in a perfect house?

Today was the first day of Bible School for the kids. The theme this year is Power Lab and Camden's all into the science end of it. I love how into God they are! Camden told me all about their Bible story today - about the 10 lepers healed by Jesus and how only one of them bothered to say thanks. Benjy later asked me if I planted the lavender here that the honey bees are buzzing around. I said no and was about to tell him that the lady who lived here before us planted it. But he quickly said, "Oh I know. GOD made them for the BEES!" Well, yeah, that's true, too. :)