Knock, Knock--Who's There?

You know those homes on your street where there are nearly always more than a few cars out front? Those homes where there are cars lined up along the curbs and in front of the other neighbor's houses? The one where a dozen bicycles are laying out front too? The one where every kid on the street (and their dog!) is playing out front--and sometimes, there's a lemonade stand at the end of the driveway??

That's my house. I'm home. My kids are home. From afterschool @ 3:45pm until dark, those bicycles are at my house...kids and their dogs(!) are out front. The doorbell rings mercilessly from the latecomers, who want to join in..I point them in a direction and off they go like a rocket!
Add to this the cars of teenagers. Nana and Taylor's friends pop in and out like teens do...
Oh, and add the cars of other Moms and Dads dropping off or picking up Daisie's middle-school-aged-friends. We could use a traffic light at the end of our driveway.

And then the missionaries. There are the ward missionaries who are teaching the new-member discussions to Taylow And the full-time missionaries who are teaching Daisie's friend, T.--who is, incidentally getting baptized tonight.

T.'s mom is the inspiration for this post. She came in last night to pick up T. and saw a house-full and said, "No wonder T. likes being over here--there's alot of people to talk to and more going on than at home because its just T. and me and [the baby sister]."

That's when I looked around. Nana and Taylow were in the kitchen baking cookies, their friends were with them, the missionaries (who had just taught T. her final lesson) were in the kitchen too, the younger kids were chasing our new puppy , Mr W & I were there as the Ringmasters to it all. We had a house-full and everyone was laughing and getting ready to play games at the 10-seater kitchen table.
By the front door lay a dozen or more pair of shoes. It's not neat and tidy. As T. was leaving last night, searching for her shoes in the pile, I suggested she find a pair she liked and call it even.

But all these people here don't seem to mind the mess or the noise. Sometimes, Mr W and I lament that it'd be nice to have a quiet evening once in awhile. He sometimes gets cranky cuz there's nowhere to park his car when he comes home from work. And I buy enough food to stock a small island with salsa, chips, popcorn and cookie mix.
Did you know that "baking cookies" is one of the "fun" activities that most kids love to do...so instead of buying ready-made cookies, I buy mixes (for the younger kids) and lots of chocolate chips for the older ones and their friends to make. My kids love being in the kitchen, and apparently, so do their friends.

This is my house. It's not fancy or chic. We don't have big screen TV's, or a theater room, we don't even have a Wii (ack! I know!). But it's enough. We have laughter and fresh-baked cookies...and the Door is wide open.