Picking up our new home!
Wow…where do I even begin?? I’m so far behind on EVERYthing, it seems!
I’ve been waiting to post until I have every image perfectly organized and watermarked, every word carefully placed in my perfectly crafted post, and no detail left out.
Um… yeah.
That’s not real life, folks. At least not for us, and not right now. This is a bizarre season of life we are in, and although my whole life feels like it’s kind of followed a similar track, this is by far the weirdest and craziest season of “always busy and behind” that we’ve entered. And recently, I’ve discovered that I’m kind of passionate about authenticity, something our modern society is sorely lacking.
In the age of handheld social media, duck lips, Snapchat filters that add makeup and hide flaws, and overdone makeup being an everyday look, we’ve become these “highlight reel” people, and the worst part?? The up-and-coming generation is starting to believe that this is real life. They see everything through the highly-edited social media post lens, and the pressure is on to be THAT person. Perfect. “Beautiful.” Put together. Kids who never mess up. Always-spotless home. Never late. Never forgetting anything. Never drinking too much coffee in hopes of just getting through the day. Pinteresting queen. Multitasker extraordinaire. The list goes on.
The reality of life is so far from the pictures and stories that people choose to share on social media, but when we see everyone else looking like they have it all together, we start to feel ridiculously inadequate. Is something wrong with us, that we aren’t like that? Why didn’t our kid’s birthday cake turn out like that? Heck, why did we buy a pre-made plain Costco cake for our kid instead of making a tiered cupcake castle with edible figurines?? What kind of person are we, anyway?? Are we just total losers, that we can’t juggle 8 jobs and 5 kids while homeschooling and leading a women’s support group, teaching Sunday School, and growing our own vegetables??
This is the culture we live in.
None of those skills or accomplishments are inherently bad, don’t get me wrong. I’d love to do them ALL! But I’m guilty of trying to do it all, because…well, Pinterest and my social media feeds say I should be able to. I FEEL like I should be able to, because overall, it feels like everyone else is able to. I feel like I should have a full face of makeup on every day, because everyone in my news feed has pictures of them only in full makeup. I feel like I should have a cute outfit on even on housecleaning days, because everyone is always in these perfectly coordinated ensembles in their posts.
That pressure needs to go away.
You don’t NEED to do or be or look like anything. If you WANT to, then by all means…go do or be or look like that.
So here is me, publishing a (way) less-than-perfect blog post, because…well, life. My life is crazy and chaotic, and apparently my blog is destined to be, too. lol!
Happy Friday, y’all!
