In a brief moment of panic last night, I realized that anyone, anywhere could see what I did on an average day by looking at my photos {shocker, I know}. Now, I had thought about family and friends looking at them, but everyone else?!?!?! All of a sudden I wasn't so sure what I thought about that. If you've spent any time looking at my daily pictures, you know that my carpet isn't always clean, the dishes and laundry pile up, and so on... But that moment passed, and I began to appreciate the freedom in that, too. 

So on that note, I'm airing my dirty laundry {literally}. As I walked around the house today, I became cognizant that there were nine {NINE!} different piles of laundry laying around, not including the big one in the basement by the washing machine. Holy moly. This week's goal: to sort, wash, organize and PUT AWAY said preponderance of laundry. And there's more...

I'm good at starting all kinds of projects but I suck at finishing them.
Sometimes I'm too lazy to serve a vegetable with dinner.

I don't remember to wash the sheets every week {or sometimes two}.
The dishes pile up {a lot} and so does the mail.
Playing on the floor with the kids? Ya, that's not really my thing...

There are boxes I still haven't unpacked from when we moved almost two years ago.

I get angry and yell at my kids, especially on the way out the door to school.

Organization is not my forte.

I haven't mopped the kitchen floors in a month {or two, or three?}. Seriously.

And that's me. Just ME. For all the world {apparently} to see. 

Why am I comfortable sharing all of that? Because I have a feeling that a lot of me looks like a lot of you. I sin. I fall short. I don't always clean up, follow up, follow through, or follow directions. And that's okay. Because I'm human, and so are you. No one is perfect, and you know what, it's a relief to stop pretending to be so. There's only one Person who is, and none of us are it. I want people to really get that, and I want to be the kind of woman that people look at and they're like, "whew, I'm glad I'm not the only one who..." or "thank GOD it's not just me that..." It's so easy to look at Facebook, Pinterest, or Instagram and think that life is always beautiful, picturesque, and perfect, and so are the people. And to not be so perfect all the time makes you a complete and utter failure, especially as a mom. 

Thankfully, that's not reality! We have a God who has redeemed us and who has created us each with a unique set of gifts and abilities. It's time we not only rejoice in our strengths and gifts but also relish our weaknesses, because when we are weak HE is strong! God can heal, fix, redeem, and even use those areas where we fail. And there is freedom and healing there, friends. Freedom to Just. Be. You. In all your glory, with all your beautiful flaws. Take a look around at your cruddy floors, cruddy kids, cruddy microwave, and cruddy toilets {you know they are--admit it!!} and PRAISE GOD, because it's okay. You're okay. Crud and all.

"When we live in that picture of what should be instead of what is, we add a layer of guilt on top of what is already very difficult. And that makes it almost impossible. It's extremely counter cultural to admit that life is not perfect. I think that people are desperate to admit together that life is messy, and that marriage is hard, and that parenting is excruciating sometimes. And that doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong. It's hard because it's supposed to be."

~Glennon Doyle Melton