3 Clean Rooms

This is my son Michael's room. He is my returned missionary and in his 2nd year at Southern Utah University studying pre-med. When he comes home on weekends and during the summer, his room doesn't look this good.

This is my son Jaron's room. He is at BYU studying musical theater. He loves New York City and his dream is to perform on broadway. When he is home on the weekends his room isn't even recognizable.

This is my son Devin's room. He is in the 8th grade at Syracuse Jr. High. He loves playing the cello and dreams of being the next Yo Yo Ma. I cleaned his room this morning so I could take this picture.

As I was walking through my house today, I noticed these 3 clean rooms and realized that my boys are growing up. The biggest sign of them growing up is seeing fewer signs of them around our home. No dirty clothes on the floor, no candy wrappers under the bed, no fingerprints on the mirrors. I never thought when I was nagging at them to clean their rooms and clean up after themselves that I would miss seeing those signs that they were around. Don't get me wrong, I am a clean fanatic, and I love it when my house is neat and tidy. But it is also just another reminder to me that my children are going to grow up and leave me, get married and have children and lives of their own, and my life will become very different. Most of the time I embrace these changes and look forward to the days when I will have daughters-in-law and cute grand babies running around my house. But sometimes I miss the sound of my own children's feet running around the house and it makes me a little bit sad.

So it's quiet for the most part, and my house will stay clean, at least until Devin gets home from school and starts making a snack so he can do his homework while watching Wizards of Waverly Place, then pulls his cello out of the closet and starts practicing, then gets on the computer and blasts i tunes while chatting on facebook. It will be quiet until Jaron comes home this weekend and starts playing the piano and singing at the top of his lungs (which I love), and then invites about 40 friends over to watch a movie and make a huge mess in my basement. And Michael's room will stay clean until the next weekend he comes home and decides he needs to set up his tent and air it out in his room while spreading his homework out all over his bed and his laundry all over the floor.

Still, if I had to choose, I would choose having them around over having their rooms clean any day.