You tell me my house is lived in

You tell me my house is "lived in" and I think you are absolutely right.

My house is lived in because my children's artwork is on the kitchen table.

The breaksfast things are waiting to be washed because I am writing, doing the thing I love.

There are books in most rooms and not all on shelves from fiction to reference books showing that the people who reside here have wide-ranging interests.

There are ornaments, daft things bought for Halloween and Christmas. Also salt dough pumpkins and ivy leaves made by the prolific artist that is my little girl.

There are lots of pictures too, things that I have bought and things handed down from my late mum. Her taste perhaps but a generator of fond memories. There are children's paintings everywhere.

There are several laundry baskets because washing in this house never ends. Partly ths is due to my fashionista daughter who changes several times a day just for fun. Partly because we live on a smallholding so things get muddy.

The mantlepiece is straining under the weight of my son's birthday cards and also the adoption card my Dad sent me last week. There are also personal items there from a photo of my late mum to an owl she bought for my son so that he would remember her as a wise old bird.

There are recipe books and lots of them because I like to try different foods and my husband also enjoys cooking. There are bun cases and tins lined up with blueberries in a punnet for today's recipe.

There are leads for our three dogs and the top of the freezer acts as a landing pad for all manner of things.

There are raffle tickets, a bag for filling for the charity shop and a shoebox to be filled for Christmas. Showing we care and are part of the community.

That is just downstairs.

Yes, my house is lived in and reflects a loving family having lots of interests but more importantly, lots of fun.

In the end, the only real point of life is to make memories and a "lived in" house generates loads.

Here's to members of the "lived in" houses club.

I would much prefer to know you than someone with a house straight out of a Next photo-shoot.

So who wants to join my "lived in" club?