Bless this mess

Here is an ever so small glimpse of the chaos that is my parents' home. What you see here is a photo taken of the holiday dinner my mom prepared. Before I jump into a rant, let me first start off by saying that I was very happy to have a dinner prepared by my mom. The ultimate xmas/turkey day comfort food for me is gravy on rice. This is probably the only time of the year I ever eat it... and the past few years I spent the holidays in Portland and did not have this yumminess (though I had other yummies that were great too).

Now, keep in mind that my parents are currently remodeling their house... But I might add that this remodel is strictly extending the master bedroom and bathroom, which has nothing to do with the front of the house. And! This remodel has been going on for over three years. Yes, you heard right. Three years. This coming spring will signal the fourth ongoing year. In the meantime, my parents have been sleeping in separate rooms, and I think one of them actually sleeps on the couch in the family room.

Anyway, back to the photo. I highlighted a few key points. My parents are pack rats. They do not get rid of anything. I think they still have a box of Twinkies from 1980 in a cupboard in the garage. Why? Because you never know. Whoops, I digress again. Sorry folks, it's so easy for me to talk (i.e. complain) about my parents. So, this is a picture of the dining room, which connects the kitchen and family room together (as well as the living room, but you can't see any of that). There are two calendars on the kitchen door. Why two? Why not! There are other things taped on the wall, but if you ask my parents, they probably couldn't tell you what they were... but they can't throw it away because what if they need it?? On the kitchen bar near the telephone, there are several cups of pens. Why do they have so many? I cannot for the life of me find any blank paper on which to write.

There is a spot for a junk drawer on the underside of where the pens are. Note, there is no drawer! It's just a box. I guess either the drawer took up a few more cubic inches of potential junk space so they took it out, or my dad has some kind of project in mind and never got around to finishing it. I don't think they've used that space since 1992.

Above that, you will note a bulletin board, or at least that's what should be there underneath all those papers. Their board is too small though and my parents now resort to taping things on the wall rather than going through old papers and filing them or throwing them away, plus they are too cheap to go out and buy a new board. Now this board, if I remember correctly from my youth, is made of cork. There are so many holes and it's so old that it's dried out and chunks of cork fall out if you stab it with a pushpin.

To the right of this mess, there are clothes hanging up on a hook attached to the game/junk closet of the family room. You may think that these clothes aren't yet put away, but you're wrong. This is where they belong! They have no other place to go other than on the back of a door. There are never less than a minimum of 7 sweaters/pants hanging here.

And then there's this big box with more stuff piled on top of it. I have no idea what this box is, but it's been there for a long time. Maybe my parents actually had three kids and one of them lives in that box, very afraid to come out for obvious reasons.

I did not bother to point out the obvious 70's brown/yellow decor nor highlight the mismatched dinnerware on the table. My mom couldn't find the crystal wine glasses so she bought some kind of champagne glass for the wine. She does not drink alcohol so I can't blame her for not knowing. She does try. Maybe too hard.

Now, I know I said that my parents are remodeling their house, but this photo shows the state that their home is in ALL the time, remodel or not. This is what I grew up in, and I must note that it's actually clean for this day seeing as how it's for a holiday dinner. Amen.