Do you recognize that quote?

It’s from one of my favorite children’s books of all time, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  

It’s such a cute story if you’ve never read it!

I know you are wondering what in the world could I possibly have to say about a children’s book that could possibly be relevant to a lifestyle blog.

Let me tell you,Tuesday was a very bad day for me.

Really.

Now, when I say bad, I don’t mean catastrophic or that we received horrible news, it was simply a bad day that left me emotionally and mentally exhausted.

Let’s start with 6 AM alarm for the second day of school.  My teenage girls fought and argued from the moment they got up until after they got to school.  I had to turn off my phone to stop the text messages.

Then my dishwasher quit draining which was quite a mess and I had to call the repairman.  He told me that he couldn’t be there until noon.  I had a client at noon, so I called and put her off until later in the afternoon (my own workout/downtime).  Since I had a couple of hours, I decided to go ahead and get groceries taken care of.

I grabbed my purse and reached inside for my keys and change purse  only to find they weren’t there.  

I turned the house upside down looking for them and then it hit me…. Monday night Audley & I had gone to supper in his truck.  I carried only my change purse just to have ID and keep things light.  I guessed that I had left them in his truck.

Audley’s truck?

It was at the Greenville/Spartanburg airport.

I texted my oldest daughter and then called the school for her to get permission to check out …. the second day of class.  She arrived home and off to the airport we flew to get into Audley’s truck and find my stuff.

We found his truck and after five unsuccessful tries to enter the keyless entry code, we discovered we were at the wrong truck.

Whoops!

FINALLY we found the right truck, got my keys and headed home.

The dishwasher repairman arrives shortly thereafter and charged $200 to pull the drain and remove two drinking straws that had washed down from our sink & was preventing the dishwasher from draining. 

After my afternoon client I decided to run to the grocery store.  I was shaking because it was three hours past my lunchtime and breakfast had been at 7:00.  As I examined my eggs, I dropped the carton and broke all 12 of them.  Totally embarrassed, I grabbed the last of my groceries and headed to the checkout.  While the cashier was ringing me up, I ran over to the ice machine to grab a 50 pound bag of ice.  As I pulled it from the machine the bag split open and ice went EVERYWHERE!!!

The poor guy who had just cleaned up my eggs was called to the front to now clean my ice.

I grabbed two frozen pizzas, tossed them on the end of my grocery order and ran from Publix after paying.

I decided a home cooked supper for my kids was NOT happening that night.

I know you are wondering why I would share something so random, but it’s my reality.

One thing I have learned in blogging is that we can make our lives look as good and perfect as we want to.  We put on a facade for the world to see all the while hiding our reality from the ones reading.

Monday morning one of my girlfriend’s posted on Facebook how she felt like a failure as a mom because her first day of school with her girls wasn’t a “Pinterest Mom Moment”.

Is this the life we really want to portray?  A life where everything is “Stepford Perfect” so that when others look at you while they may find inspiration, they may also cave to their own imperfections?

We’ve become a picture perfect society as we hide behind our computer screens.  Personally I am tired of perfection and would love to see so much more transparency.  I love happy, cheerful, positive and even superficial things that inspire me, but I also want to know that there are other women out there who struggle balancing everything in their lives!

I’ve spent the last nine months trying to balance being a wife, mom, and working, while having a husband who travels a lot for his own job during the week.  I have friends who tease me about being Supermom, how easy I make everything look & how together my life is.

In reality, I am exhausted.

I have a calendar on my phone, in my office and a huge day planner with me at all times.  I get up at 4:00AM two mornings a week and 6:00 AM the other workdays.  I have clients as early as 5:00 AM and as late as 7:00 PM and most nights I’m up until 11 or 12.

My son missed wrestling practice four times in the last three weeks because I simply forgot (twice I fell asleep on the couch when I came home between clients).  I go to bed without doing dishes from time to time and at least once a week I wash the same load of clothes more than once because I forget to swap them out.

My spare room floor is stacked with half-finished projects and my kids eat take-out pizza twice a week sometimes.

Sound Perfect?

But, if you look at my Instagram or Facebook page — Picture Perfect!

I sent my sweet friend who was so upset after her “failed” first day of school moments a scripture message from Proverbs 31.

It was a reminder that we don’t have to be “Pinterest Perfect” .  If we have the love and respect of our husband and children no matter how messed up the morning has been, we are still perfect in their eyes.

Being a Proverbs 31 woman is much more awesome than being “Pinterest Perfect”!

After my horrible day on Tuesday, I came in from my last client, turned off the world & dove into scripture.  The verses that gave me the most peace were found in Ecclesiastes 3 —

The good, the bad; we all have our season.  It’s not picture perfect, but it’s reality.

My reality?

I’m giving it to God — ALL of it!

The good, the bad, the ugly and it’s OK because HE is perfect and can handle it ALL!

I can laugh over my day now as it seems all surreal, but I’m pretty sure if I had dwelt on it and kept the failures of the day bottled up inside of me so that my life appeared perfect, I wouldn’t feel so at peace right now.

As I end this long post (which I really hope you read), I want to know, WHAT IS YOUR REALITY?

And PS…. If you want to keep up with my crazy life (I’m really going to try to be a little more transparent) be sure to follow me on Instagram and Facebook!