Wordy Wednesday

A dear friend, and a brilliant homeschooler and extraordinary blogger, was discussing blogging with me. She noticed that I was blogging again, and we talked about her struggles with whether or not to return to the blog world. She brought up some valid points, and I wanted to type out some of my thoughts on ONE big point.

Friend pointed out that sometimes when you read homeschooling blogs, they seem daunting. How could anyone POSSIBLY really get all that done? How could anyone possibly be THAT organized? How could anyone possibly have a house that CLEAN (with little ones underfoot??) AND, still be getting SO MUCH done?

Her point...that most often blogs only show the "shiny" side of homeschooling. This is terribly true. I read other blogs and feel almost jealous of how much others are accomplishing. I want to be like them...and I felt that way after reading Friend's blog before too. She is the most amazing schooler I've ever known. She is so in tune with her kids, and their needs, and finding just the right way to meet them. I'm guilty of saying "I want to be like that!" Others apparently contacted her and said things similar to my above questions (how can you get it all done...I could never do all that you do....) I feel confident that it was NEVER her goal to make anyone feel sub-par or like they weren't doing enough. That is however the way some people felt.

We talked about how honesty is so important in the blog world, especially when so many people ARE out to "show off" how much they can accomplish. Yeah, I don't believe the world is so shiny as to not have people like this in the blogosphere. I mean, it's the same person that IRL is busy trying to make everyone else feel bad about themselves in order to make herself feel better. The one that is trying so hard to convince the universe that her life is perfect, when if you REALLY scratch the surface, it's a gnarly mess under there. We've all known her. Now, she's got a blog.

I try to be brutally honest about my life when I write here. Monday is chaos in my house. I'm not going to paint that any other way. I'm up before the sun, and therefore, some days my kids spend way to much time with screens. I'm tired by 7pm, and the house is never in as good shape as I would like it to be. The pic at the top of this blog is an effort to be totally honest with you all. I took that pic JUST NOW. You can see the garbage needs to be taken out, the centerpiece from the table is sitting on the counter in the kitchen (it has the balloon tied to it,) the George Foreman grill didn't get put away after being washed, the strainer is still fully loaded, and the sink is full (this is Two's job-she loads/unloads the dishwasher...but I was tired and wanted a shower and bed so I let it slide,) a milk carton needs to be rinsed for recycling, there is random clutter on the counter next to the sink-including a dirty sippy cup, a cabinet door stands ajar which is a personal pet peeve but this is what I woke up to this morning. Is it the way I want to start my day? No. *shrug* It's life.

I do love it, though.

BONUS: I also want to share a quote from Friend, and I don't think she'll mind that I shared, especially since no actual names are being used here. "The blog world needs to know that some days we just can't get our shit together. And that's OK too." I love her.