Keepin' It Real

My friend Corinna did a really awesome thing on her blog yesterday. She wrote a post to show a side of motherhood that you don't often see from bloggers- the REAL side! You can find her "Keepin' It Real Mondays" post here.

Corinna wrote about the fact that as mama's, we tend to be hard on ourselves, and to compare ourselves to other mamas who we think have it all together. This is a trap I fall into all the time! It's so hard to remember that the writers of all of the beautiful blogs I read have hard days too. They struggle with things, just like I do. I look up to and admire so many mamas, and it's easy to build them up in my mind as so much better than me- more patient, more tender, more organized.. If I give in to these thoughts and compare myself to the idea I have in my head of what their day to day lives are like, it really brings me down.

So in an effort to counteract all of the comparing and unrealistic perceptions about motherhood, Corinna has started a Keepin' It Real series. Here's what she has to say about it:

"So, while there's nothing wrong with only writing posts about the fun and cool parts of our life, I thought in an effort to keep it real with you, and to show you a peek at the not-so-cute parts of my life, and to remind us mamas how we're united by the craziness, I'd do a weekly "Keepin' It Real" post."

I love her idea so much, so I want to jump on board! I'm hoping Corinna will do a weekly link-up, where all of us mama's can link our real life posts to share. So fun! If you have a blog and you'd like to participate, leave Corinna a comment on her Keepin' It Real post to let her know!

So, here are my real-life confessions...:

I posted this picture to Instagram the other day with the caption "Letting this happen right now so that I can curl my hair":

Emmett is super clingy in the mornings lately, probably because he knows I'm leaving him all day again and he hates it, so getting ready for work lately has been tough. I usually barely have time for a shower, then it's throw on some clothes, throw my hair up, and spend the rest of the morning with the baby. This day was Friday though, and there's just something about Fridays that makes me want to look nice. So, I gave the baby a few rolls of toilet paper to keep him entertained for a few minutes while I did my hair.

A friend commented that if it takes less time for her to clean the mess than the time the mess bought her, she's fine with it! I love that.

I sent this picture to my sister the other night:

I told her I haven't done laundry at all this week so I'm scrounging around Emmett's closet for PJ's every night. I found this little gem of a baseball onesie in the back of his closet just in time for his pre-bedtime chair sitting (he's obsessed with that chair), and it was pretty cute!

But the point is, I'm really bad at laundry. Like, I barely get it washed on the weekends, and then it sits in piles for days until I can't take it anymore and finally put it all away. Usually by then the clean pile has mixed with the dirty pile and I end up having to wash everything all over again. I won't even get in to how long it takes me to wash and dry a load because our washer and dryer are old and hate me..

Yesterday about halfway through the day I realized I hadn't rinsed the conditioner out of my hair in the shower that morning... Hashtag momlyfe.

Last night after Emmett's bath, I let him crawl around naked for a couple of minutes while I searched for clean pj's (see?). He crawled right out the door and stopped at our hall linen closet, stood up, and peed. All over the clean beach towels and the carpet. So now I REALLY need to do laundry.

So there you go. Life isn't perfect, and I am FAR from it.

PS: Today marks 4 months since Corinna and her husband lost their sweet baby girl Celeste. Head over to Track 8 to read about Celeste, and please keep Corinna's family in your prayers, today and always.

PPS: My parents were married 31 years ago today. Go mom & dad! They are such an awesome example to me, and I love them so much! Check out my dad's blog to read more about our family!

PPPS: Don't forget to enter my Freshly Picked moccasins giveaway! It ends tomorrow evening!