Sometimes when I look around my house I just see the things I hate. We bought our house 9 years ago. We sanded down floors, replaced the bathtub, tore down walls, and repainted every room in the house. Nine years and 4 kids later, it could use major re-sanding, re-painting, and hole-patching.

Our house was built in the late 1800s; the walls are not even or straight. Previous owners have made a lot of strange changes over the years. They seemed more concerned about inexpensiveness and not what actually makes sense. There are so many things I would love to be able to change and update.

Every now and then, I get overwhelmingly frustrated by the mess of our house — the mess a family of 6 makes just from living …

the mess that comes from our first dog destroying our wood floors …

the mess of dust and dog fur that occurs in less than 24 hours since I last vacuumed.

Of course, there are also the paint-chipped walls from kids doing who knows what; dirty hand prints all over my white trim and pretty much everything else; and a hundred more things that I would love to have fixed.

Every so often I get caught up in focusing on these things — the problems, the stuff that bothers me. I forget that this house, which can make me so crazy, is where life happens. This is where we brought our babies home from the hospital. This is where my kids learned to walk, talk, and love each other.

They have spent so much time riding balance bikes and scooters in the loop between the rooms of our house because I am not worried about them damaging our already-damaged floor.

They don’t mind a little (or a lot) of dog fur or dust on the floor as we go through our days.

So, while there are things that need cleaning and updated, I want to make sure I do not get caught up on those things. Instead, I want to keep my focus on creating a home that inspires my kids to learn and grow and love each other well.

In the end, it is those things that they will remember. It is those things that truly matter.