Facebook, Comparing, and the Edit Button

Sometimes facebook tips me past the edge of connecting to comparing.  I know when it is coming on.  It is late, I am overtired, and I know I really shouldn't follow that picture to have-it-all-together's-homepage.  But gosh darn it, I let curiosity get the better of me and suddenly I am thinking I could really use a makeover. 

Is her family always that smiley, her life always so wonderful, her home really that darling?

These are real photos, taken by real people, that I really know.  How could it be anything but real?
I know supermodels have personal trainers, personal cooks, and plenty of photoshop.   But my sophomore year locker partner? I wrongly assume what I see is reality.

I'm one week into blogging and I'm already amazed that I can create any reality of who I am that I darn well please.  {Well, except for the fact that mostly my mother and best friends read my blog, that is, and ya'll pretty much know I'm as much a mess as any (and love me still - lucky, lucky me).}

Nevertheless, for that gracious reader who has never met me, I can highlight all my culinary successes and you would never know I have been fumbling my way through the kitchen the last 8 years.  I can highlight this season of mothering - which I really do love - and you would never know that just a year ago this month my husband left work in the middle of his day to rescue me from mothering mayhem.  If I am feeling particularly vulnerable, maybe I'll go there in another post, but honestly, I would much rather relax on the couch and post all the fun pictures of what we are doing that we like around here.

And come on, do you really want to know that I stepped over this giant mess to make my grateful tree?

 

Okay, maybe you do.  Sometimes I do.  Without the after/ look-how-darling-I-made-this-once-ugly-space photo.  I had high hopes to turn this space into an organized entry way.  Sigh.  But I pick grateful trees with my boys, books on the couch, and spending my evenings blogging instead. 

 

Thank God there is an edit button in cyberspace and a grace button in reality.  Lord knows we need both.

 

January's Sand Castles

After my pep talk to myself in "Winter's Fight", I decided to put my resolve to the test and venture out into the cold again.  My oldest son was begging me for some playtime outside, and we discovered there is fun to be had in 5 degrees after all.

It didn't hurt that the sun was out because, cold or no cold, I'm a sucker for the sun.

Besides that, I'm now 6 posts in and I haven't added a single pictures of my cuties.  What a waste of having my own mom blog :)

For the day, I wondered if I mislabeled Winter as stingy.  My husband thinks I neurotically either hate or love things, no mediocre emotions in between.  There must be truth to what he says, because, for a few tender moments yesterday, I thought I might love Winter.  

 

 

 

 

(affectionately called sand castles by my boys.  made with flower pots still sitting in my yard )

 

 

After trying out snow angels and snowballs C, my creative builder, decided to take our nicely stacked wood pile and turn it into a fort.  I vacillated between creative mom and controlling mom.  I'm thankful creative won out on this one: