New Rules for Pinterest & Instagram

There really is no natural way to segue back into a blog that I've been ignoring for almost a year, is there? Every great once in awhile (and I'm using "once in awhile" as a hyperbole here), I get asked why I don't blog as much.  And of course my response is always, "Well mom....I'm busy raising your grandkids!" I may have explained this before, but when I started writing this whole thing years ago I had this vision of a virtual scrapbook to share our life with the world as so many other moms do.  Every picture of our daily outings would be perfectly staged highlighting all of the amazing fun our family has when we're not even trying! We'd look adorably candid in our matching outfits while we walked hand in hand through wheat fields, on railroad tracks, and in front of rustic barns, all while we drank from mason jars with striped straws. Eventually, I was going to have it all printed into a book so that I could give it to my children as they left for college to remind them how wonderful their childhood had been!

Then, one day, I realized with a giant sense of freedom that our life isn't Pinterest or Etsy....and that's okay. For every picture I post of Emery smiling with a new Karate belt, I could post another 20 of me pulling him off his game of Skylanders while he screams, "I don't want to go there today! I want to play video gaaaaaaaammmmmmees!" And realistically, the chance of the kids and I having coordinating outfits is slim to none unless princess Belle clothes come in adult size or I decide to start sporting Crocs on a daily basis. I don't even own mason jars! So instead, my blog took a left turn where I started writing about how crazy my kids are and about how they live in a world where up is down, left is right, and my prayers start with a simple plea for sanity. And that, after all, doesn't make a very good "off to college" present now, does it?!

Speaking of Pinterest, if I owned that website (and it's been stated before that Satan does to which I totally concur) I would require that every craft had a difficulty rating and a picture of the mess that will be left behind in it's wake.  Then I could more realistically decide if digging out a Micheal's coupon and dragging two kids through a store where they get distracted by Christmas decorations in July and start screaming out their list to Santa while I'm rummaging through ribbon bins to decorate some cake stand in hopes of getting one good Instagram shot might be worth it or not. And speaking on Instagram, if owned that site I would require that the 45 shots everyone takes before they finally get one that's post-worthy would have to be displayed as a full succession.  Then, I think, we would all feel more like we are on the same chaotic page in life!?  Here...let me be the first to be a little more honest:

Anyway, I think I've reached a place where I can accept that maybe if I put more work back into this blog,  an eventual bound copy may not be the best gift for Emery and Lulu's twenties.  But do you know what?  It might be a good gift for their thirties when they have a family of their own.  I know I had that moment when it dawned on me exactly what I had put my parents through for 18 years.  At least my kids would know that I laughed (sometimes) while I waded through 2 feet of toys in a messy play room and (eventually) smiled when they drew on our walls in pink highlighter.  So here's to school starting and finally having some time to write down and laugh at imperfection once again!  Until then...I'll be hunting down obscure school supplies (Retractable dry erase markers?  Are caps really that hard to put back on?) and counting down the days until I have a three hour window to clean the house without a new mess following 2 feet behind me.

Have a great week!

Jenny