112 A "Perfect" Post

If it seems I have been a little MIA lately, it is because I have been.  The hubs and I took a quick and sneaky vacation....

To the beautiful beaches of Florida....

The vacation was intended to be 100% relaxation, I didn't even bring my laptop {although I did occasionally check in on comments with my phone}.  But I couldn't help but think about this little blog baby of mine, while relaxing with my feet in the sand.  I thought about the projects I want to accomplish, updates I want to make and mainly, the questions and comments that I have been receiving {since my connection with you fine friends is why I keep on writing}.

And in that moment of reflection, I got to thinking about a common theme.  Perfection.

Because I have and share daily my love for all things organized, I sometimes feel there is this stigma that...

• Our house is perfect
• Our kids are perfect
• Our life is perfect
• I am perfect 

That makes me cringe...

And although I may frequently share photos of freshly organized spaces and neglect to blog about the messes and craziness, and toss around the term "perfect" haphazardly without much thought... life is not perfect, and I am incredibly OK with that.

What is the definition of perfect anyway?  I think it differs for everyone, but at moments in my lifetime I have found myself striving to achieve it.  I felt at times that we should be living some sort of perfect magazine worthy life.  I have tried to reach the impossible high standards I set for myself; gleaming kitchen floors, fresh home cooked meals every night, set in stone schedules, showroom perfect furniture, freshly cut grass and weeded gardens, bins and baskets all neatly lined in a row, kids with permagrins and a husband that I never bicker with....

Talk about exhausting.

Why was it so important to strive for such an impossible set of expectations?
 

I have been wanting to write about my feelings on "perfection" for awhile, since organizing can quickly become associated with the word, and it is a term that is abused around here from time to time.  I read other blogs and listen to friends who feel as though they are "failing" when their home is messy, their kids are having a meltdown or they haven't cooked a four course dinner in three nights.  It makes my heart hurt that we allow ourselves to feel that way and we try and compare ourselves to others.

As my Mr. and I have continued to grow our family, it quickly became apparent to me how time consuming it was for me to try to be this vision of perfect I had created for myself.  Over the years I have been forced to question, "What am I gaining?" and have also realized what I am missing...

Thanks to living and learning and reflection, I have allowed myself to create a new definition of my perfect which is the moment that we are all home to gather for breakfast on the deck, puppy prints on the patio door and toothpaste splatters on the mirror, impromptu dinner dates, sleeping in a Saturday, LEGO cities and wooden train tracks, a day without power, picnics at the park, furniture the entire family can fit on, thirty minutes to catch a show and play a board game with my love, clothing with ice cream stains and grass stains, a husband who challenges me, baskets all lined in a row {hey, it is a sickness}...

Those moments signify a lived in, happy home and mean I was able to spend moments of my busy day with people I love and cherish.

Do I sometimes have heart palpitations when our schedule shifts at the last minute.  Yep.  Do I still do a quick clean sweep of the home most evenings?  Sure.  But each day we are given the chance to make choices to either work to achieve that impossible perfection status or just live the fabulous life we already have right in front of us.

Of course I will continue to spend hours lost in my favorite shelter magazines or browsing beautiful images on Pinterest.  It is still important to me to make our lives easier by creating simple organizing solutions and I will continue strive to have a lovely home that our family smiles for when they enter through the door.  It is just important to remember....

As a blog writer, a reader of blogs and one obsessed with Pinterest, it is easy to quickly feel inadequate and like I should always be doing more, that someone is always better at something than I am and that I should be the jack of all trades super mom.  If you have ever felt that way, let's vow that we will be proud of who we are and use all of those avenues to inspire us, learn, grow and try something new, but let's also promise that we will set our own realistic definitions of "perfect".