cluttered?!!

clut⋅ter

–verb (used with object)

1.	to fill or litter with things in a disorderly manner: All kinds of papers cluttered the top of his desk.

–noun

5.	a disorderly heap or assemblage; litter: It's impossible to find anything in all this clutter.

6.	a state or condition of confusion.

7.	confused noise; clatter.

8.	an echo or echoes on a radar screen that do not come from the target and can be caused by such factors as atmospheric conditions, objects other than the target, chaff, and jamming of the radar signal.

Synonyms:
5. mess, disorder, jumble.

oi!
hate that word!
let me back up a week or so....
Most of you know that we are foster parents. along with being foster parents you get to have unscheduled visits from various workers in social service areas...one of our unscheduled visits took place last week. I thought it went well for un-announced and all....then we received the report in the mail today....I scanned down page one...for what ever reason my eyes did not take in all the good things that were written on the page....no....my eyes fell upon one word...hovered over that word...drank it in and searched the vocabulary bank in my brain for the definition ~ all I could conjure up was a picture of my aunt's house.....or the show "hoarders" and panic set in....she thought my house was cluttered....CLUTTERED....C L U T T E R E D ! ! ! Suddenly I had a hard time breathing, I had a difficult time organizing my thoughts and my brain felt cluttered. cluttered with millions of thoughts. This one word in the report has haunted me all evening....
so
i ran through the visit in my still cluttered mind. once. twice. three times.....no comfort came....because I realized she was right...
she
was
right!
sigh....
the living room was scattered with the miscellaneous toys strung about by the little tornado we call Burrito.
we had a very nice visit amongst the toys and Burrito running in and about scattering and gathering his toys left and right....
then it was time for the run through....how could I forget about the run through...well there goes my philosophy of if "I don't have to look at it then I don't care"....HA! double HA HA! who am I kidding?? I do care. It was a joke...
first stop...Madison's room....you would think it would be clean and orderly except for the fact that this is the room Isaiah has decided to use for school...he was in the middle of a huge project and evidence of said project was everywhere!!!
bathroom...whew! was clean!
Sam and Amaris's bedroom??? bahaha what a joke. seriously~ it looked like a toy store threw up in there. beds all unmade. every single one of the kids beds. completely a wreck! gah!
At this point I am hesitating the descent to the basement where the boys "live" the play room/Madison's other room is full to the top with donations for Dropz of Hope.
Isaiah and Elijah's room? dirty clothes, clean clothes, books, sports equipment, puppets, action figures, WWE paraphernalia scattered all about!! not to mention Isaiah's 197,000 legos a 1500 piece puzzle of who knows what haphazardly scattered on a table.
Laundry room...hhmmm dirty clothes. 2 laundry baskets over flowing with clean folded laundry and 6 bags full of donations for DOH....
so yes.
Sadly.....I live in a cluttered house...
Please OH PLEASE tell me how to de-clutter a lived-in home.
A home where 5 children run and laugh and play and never pick up after themselves...
A home where children are home-schooled.
A Home where foster children come for respite, or to stay a while, or forever....
A home that is a home, a CASA office, a Dropz of Hope office, a school, a bakery, a counseling center and a million other things....
When did I lose control? When did it cross from being "lived in" to being CLUTTERED?!
dump truck please?
an Office and a warehouse for DOH please....all 3 will help control my cluttered life...
So I sat down here at my computer and thought about the word....and took a look at the report one more time.
Honestly the report was not bad. the conclusion was a choice of No deficiencies minor deficiencies, concerns regarding quality of care, OR significant deficiencies....we rated the highest with no deficiencies....so why did that one word cause me such grief?
I still don't know....even after all this....I am still bugged by the use of that word....maybe if there was a brief explanation of what exactly all the clutter was....oh POOH! I don't know!
I guess I better get to work on the clutter....Lord knows I will have plenty of time cooped up in this house in the crazy snow and ice that has confined us all to our homes....
deep breath....
ready...
set...
GO!