Keeping it Real.

I read an interesting blog post by a friend of mine here recently that was entitled, "Keeping it Real". Because I could not paraphrase her words better than she wrote them herself, I will share this part of her post here:

"My point of this blog though is to acknowledge that I don't think most people keep it real on their blogs. I think we have a huge tendancy in life to compare our weaknesses to other people's strengths and I am afraid that blogging may exasperate the issue more. We read about people's vacations, perfect love for husband or wife, the highs of parenthood and just about every other perfect scenerio. I find that people seldomly blog about how behind they are with their laundry or dusting or how they are frustrated with not having enough time in the day or how they don't deserve the goodness of their spouse."

That got me to thinking. I think it is totally natural to want to share only the best part of your life, marriage, parenting experiences and abilities on a public forum such as a blog, but I can totally amen my friend's thoughts about wanting to hear more about the dirty house, or the fact that you've spent so much time re-reading Twilight here lately that you've neglected other important things, like um, personal scripture study. (Guilty.) I don't believe that blogs should be the place to air out marital problems (but hey, I guess if it's your blog you can do what you want with it), but it'd be nice to know that people aren't as perfect as their blogs make them sound because only the best parts of their life are being shared. I don't know about y'all, but there are days when I get finished reading my blog roll and my ego has taken a major hit.

I was having a conversation with my friend Sara the other day and she was telling me that she has a friend who commented to her that she feels like she can't keep up with everyone else and all that they can accomplish that she reads about on their blogs, and it really gets her down. Sara made a great point: We are all at different places in our lives. Some of us have babies that take all of our time, some of our kids are older which frees us up and gives us time to do projects and be wildy creative and productive. I love that the blogging world inspires me personally with project ideas, meal ideas, and a way to share information and ideas that have worked well for me, but if we're not careful, there is that tendency to compare ourselves to other people's strengths and to feel, well, inadequate. Hugely, grossly inadequate.

We were all sent to Earth with different talents and abilities, and though logically I know that, it doesn't stop me from yearning and sometimes even envying the talents of my friends, even though I know I have lots of things I'm good at too. I'd love to be able to play the piano like Cheyenne, I'd love to be able to sew like Sara and Rachael, I'd love to be able to write like Jenny Sue, I'd love to be able to keep my house as clean as Laura, I'd love to be able to keep my Franklin Covey as ridiculously organized as Lacy's, I'd love to be able to have the energy to do fun, creative things with my kids every day the way Alicia does...oh, the list is long and sorted.

So in the spirit of keeping it real, I'm going not going to be afraid to talk about the non-perfect things in my life anymore. So, to start, here's a few.

-My kids don't have a bedtime. They go to bed when they're tired and wake up when they're not. I'm enjoying the heck out of it right now, as it will have to change in the fall when we enroll Ethan in preschool a couple mornings a week. But now, it's nice to be able to sleep until 9:30 am most days.

-Sometimes my kids eat chocolate for breakfast. And that's it. And both my kids love Dr. Pepper. (But Ethan told me the other day that his favorite food is broccoli, so I don't feel quite so bad about the Dr. Pepper).

-I don't always shower every day, especially if I don't leave the house. There are some weeks where I only put make-up on on Sundays. I do so many things now that I'm married with kids that I SWORE I would never do. As Heidi puts it, "I was such a good mom before I had kids." Amen, Heidi, Amen. I thought I had things alllll figured out before I was married and had a family, and have seriously had to ask for forgiveness for all the moms I was so judgmental of before I had a family of my own and realized that all of my idealic little ideas of marriage and family are JUST NOT THAT EASY.

-I've had clean loads of laundry that have sat, unfolded, on my couch for close to a week before.

-When I'm done working out at the gym I will sometimes go get magazines and read them in the locker room, just because I haven't reached the time limit yet where I need to go get my kids, just so I can read in peace. That's bad, huh?

-I suck at dieting and eating right during the day; obviously, and though I can put a well-balanced dinner on the table, my stomach doesn't know how to tell my brain it's full and to stop eating already, you dummy.

-There are things on my never-ending to-do lists that have been there, transferred very carefully from one list to the next, for months and months.

I know I'm a stay-at-home mom and people think I should have all the time and patience and energy in the world to get things done, but let me tell you that stay-at-home mom's do not sit at home and eat bon-bons all day. Some days I don't know where my day has gone, but it is gone, and I'm lucky if we're all out of pajamas.

I will continue to share the highs of my life; my creative and personal victories because I know I am inspired by everyone else's, so maybe mine can be inspiring too, but there's lots of stuff I don't do that I wish I did, or some things I do do that I wish I didn't, and for me personally, I think it will help me become better if I share some of that. And as my friend put it on her blog:

"None of us are perfect and I much prefer you all with your little imperfections and your desires to be better."

And isn't that what it's all about? A desire to be better? Yes, it is.