i used to be a clean freak

I used to be a clean freak. Key phrase: used to. I try, I really do. I especially want to teach my children to clean up after themselves, to care for their belongings and to take pride in having a home that is peaceful, relaxing, orderly. Where am I going wrong? Remember this? When we had our kitchen re-done, we had pull out spice drawers put in. It's great for us because it gave us the additional space that we needed and in Anna's mind, just as great for her! Why, you ask? For this reason:

What is this? 

A whole lot...

of kosher salt. 
Notice the additional little hand. 

How can you get mad at that face?
You can't, and you don't. Because you remember the story that your mom told you that when you were around the same age, you decided that you would put comet around the edge of the water bed (yes, I said water bed...it was the late 70s/early 80s, it's okay...I laugh too!) It must be payback...

X 2 (though to his credit, he was actually cleaning up for me and got the broom and the dust pan ;) ).
I just can't seem to get things in order the way I'd like. When I'm in one room cleaning up, I come in to the next one a total mess. I have lost count of how many times I use the vacuum cleaner in a day. What can I say? My kids have gotten in to anything and everything! It's quite exhausting, yet I grab the camera. I grab the camera to stamp the image in my mind, that my children will only make these messes for so long. My children will one day grow up. 
I continue to teach them that when we make messes we clean them up, and that we take care of what belongs to us. They continue to teach me that if I spend my every waking, breathing moment cleaning, I will miss the finer moments. Yes, I'd like to have the freakishly clean home that I used to have before kids.  For some reason, I've been given children that are masters of disaster, but they've been given to me and I am eternally blessed because of them.