Keep Calm and Mommy On

Just last week I got to get out for a night with a very special friend for dinner and a movie. It was such needed time away! We saw the movie Mom's Night Out. I walked away from it feeling so encouraged. Was it cheesy? Absolutely! But, very very encouraging! I totally and completely related to the main character! Sometimes just knowing you aren't alone in all the ridiculousness is enough to make you smile in the midst of it all! 

I'm OCD. For any who know me, you are already aware! I start shaking when my house gets in this kind of condition…

...which happens A LOT with kids.

To help manage my OCD, I live by planners and schedules. I love routine. LOVE. 

I have four times of day that I clean-morning, early afternoon, late afternoon, and after supper.

I'm lucky in that I love to clean. It soothes me. Yes, I'm aware that I am an absolute weirdo!

While I may like cleaning, seeing mess like this appear seconds after the place looked spotless can send me into a little bit of a freak-out! 

I was not prepared for this. No book foretold this kind of chaos...

Getting back to the movie, the main girl had a motto, 'keep calm and mommy on'. I just love that! 

She was so self deprecating! Over and over she would claim she was a failure and couldn't keep up. Oh how I can relate to those feelings. How often do I click into Facebook only to walk away wishing my life looked like all those 'perfect mommas'? I go back and forth between banning myself from looking at all those highlights of 'friends' lives, and then getting sucked right into 'liking' so and so's 'relaxing' camping trip with her 3 smiling children, dressed in smocked clothes, or that beach trip where all the kids are sun kissed and cooperating. 

That just isn't a real portrayal of life with kids. Not for me anyway. It is messy and sometimes I just long to see other families looking a little bit less….well, perfect! That is why it was so nice to see some similarity from this movie to my real life. 

Speaking of real life...

My kids hurt me. 

A.LOT.

Unintentionally, yes! But, oh my, they can cause me pain!

How you ask? (these are just two examples)

Culprit A:

We fly planes a lot in this house. This one in particular is made of heavy duty metal. Lets take a look at it's undercarriage. 

Those little spiky wheels created some dints into my skull last night. 

My little man is quite the rough-houser. He loves to wrestle, head-but, and 'land' his toys on me! He is 35 pounds of compact weight and it can hurt.

Let's move on to exhibit B:

Cute little Disney princess light up shoes. Couldn't possibly cause any harm right? 

Wrong…

Those heals HURT. My little princess needs to be touching me all day every day. Mostly held. These adorable shoes of hers….wow! 

This mothering thing is no joke. It is a place of exhaustion where patience wears thin. In those places, I find one plain and simple truth flashing neon lights into my life. I cannot do it alone. The Lord has given me this awesome responsibility and will see me through it if only I lean on Him. Oh, how I long to swallow that truth and stand in it forever. I remember and forget so often. 

All in all this is my favorite quote of the movie and pretty much sums up my life!

"I'm a mess, but I'm a BEAUTIFUL mess! I'm His masterpiece, and that's enough"

I think the movie made me realize that the messy part of this life of mine is what I love the most. Perfection is boring. It isn't what I want. It is so funny and confusing…the things that cause me the most anxiety/stress/frustration/irritation are the very things that bring me into elation after I sit down at the end of the day. They are what I live for. What I breathe for. This little family of mine is my everything. 

so….