There was this time in my life, well, let's just say I'm still living in it... where I find myself constantly having to talk myself down from the high walls of perfection. You may know this place.. it's where you find yourself when you have made a huge "to-do" list of unconquerable tasks; when you've saw the laundry rolling over its boundary, the dishes stacked high (or maybe not even stacked but laid haphazardly all of the countertops, tables, and maybe even floors if you have two toddlers like I do). You have housework, bills, grocery shopping, the list can go on. You decide that you will tackle it all. If you can just get these 'X' amount of things done, and you will be "caught up".. all will be "well".
You have placed your expectations waaaay up there at the top of this seemingly endless list of tasks, and when you look back over all the these tasks in reality, you may find yourself failing.
I tend to put my expectations for myself way above the reality of what I can conquer.
Let me give you a quick illustration..
I make vinyl shirts. I am a stay at home mommy (the hardest things I've ever had to do) with a small business of crafting things for others (no small business is easy, ever). I tend to overwork myself with other people's orders. Then, as the holiday I've been preparing them for draws close, I realize that my original intention of starting this business was to do things for and with my family, yet I have let things slip by so fast that I haven't even thought about my own family.
As I was blow drying my hair yesterday, after having a really rough kind of day, and just before preparing the kids for an evening of trick-or-treating, the thought crossed my mind..
.. my children have store-bought costumes... what a failure.
This may not seem like much to you, but to me, the one who finds complete JOY in making things for others, this was a harder pill to swallow than I thought. Before I could stop myself, I was going through the list of things in my mind that I hadn't completed, and all the times that I "failed" as a mommy.
I pin things to a board on Pinterest yet I never get around to doing these things with the kids.
My toddlers had corndogs for lunch 3 days last week... hotdogs 2..and a lunchable the remaining days.
I am not even sure that B has one pair of clean underwear, Sister has not one single, correctly paired of shoes.. but more like one pink dress shoe and one furry black boot in the middle of the southern heat of Alabama.
I am not even sure when I had a shower or when either of their teeth were brushed.
If you have ever felt this way, I am here to remind you that:
YOU ARE NOT ALONE.
It is OK for our houses to be subpar.
Our children are going to be fine without cooked meals everyday.
Though we need to spend time with our children, if we fail to complete the activities that Pinterest Supermoms out there have submitted, they will feel no less loved.
It's ok for them to go to the fall festival without a monogrammed holiday shirt, for our porches to not hold the perfectly painted pumpkin and holiday wreath you made yourself, or for you to run by Target and grab 2 costumes when you realize you have no idea what yours kids are going to dress up as (and, quite frankly, you haven't thought about it, nor have time to).
Here's a thought: How many costumes do you remember in detail from your childhood? I may be the weird one, but I truly can't remember that many. I can tell you what I "think" I dressed as, and I can tell you a few that I vividly remember only because I recall a photograph that I saw of myself.
The point is this: We, as moms, are rocking it. Your children are alive. Your children are loved. Your children have all the things they need. We just need to take a step back and enjoy life. Take it all in before these days are but a memory.
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