Behind The Scenes...

...of a real life mom.

I read a quote recently that went like this:

                        "The reason we struggle with insecurity is
           because we compare our behind-the-scenes
           with everyone else's highlight reel." 
                                                                                 ~Steve Furtick

I have to agree. So often we see some one doing something cool, something crafty, something artsy, something frugal, and we go: "Wow! I wish I could do that! All I ever do is cook, laundry, change diapers, cook, and clean up. I must be boring, or not very talented, unorganized, un-frugal, etc, etc."

I know. I have felt that feeling too often. I look at my friends blogs or FB posts of beautiful gardens, artsy paintings, delicious dishes, fun outings with their kids - and then look around my house and see this:

And this:

                                             
                                                     (At least I made my bed! ) :)

       And I think; "Man. What am I doing wrong?? How come I work all day and still can't get on top of things? "

     The problem is, I am asking the wrong question. I should be asking myself what I did today? Well, the answer to that is easier... I got out of bed at 6 am to make breakfast for my Man. I cooked three meals a day, (my husband comes home for lunch, yay!!) I fed/watered my chickens, I watered my garden, and pulled a few weeds. Then I did a couple loads of laundry, baked some bread and maybe sat and read 5 or 10 books to my preschooler. Maybe I talked to my daughter about the book she's reading, or listened to my son explain his invented paper airplane. I sat with my husband and discussed life. I called a lonesome friend.
     Ok, this is not an actual diary of any particular day - just an example of an ordinary day for me. I do have cleaning/organizational disfunction, I will freely admit that. But my thought is - we do ourselves no favors by comparing ourselves to someone else. And maybe we bloggers do no one any favor by always and only showing our 'highlight reel'. That's fun and tempting to do - I do it on this blog all the time. But the behind-the-scenes is not as glam, not as artsy, and certainly not as photo-friendly, but alot more real.
     And we live real lives. Ok, maybe no one else lets their house get as messy as mine before cleaning it, (yikes!) but we probably all have some areas that we struggle with. I want you to know you're not alone, and there is hope. Messy rooms can be cleaned...

 ...and the most important things in life are not things anyways, right? :) The smiles of happy kids, the relationship with your husband, most importantly the relationship you cultivate with God your Father - these are the things that matter in Life.