I meant to post this sooner than now. But if you read the last post and have been thinking what a wonderful, put together person I am, I wanted you to see that that is clearly not the entire story. This is the other half of my kitchen. The counters that didn't get cleared and the remnants of the banner and tissue paper balls. I was reading my grandmother's autobiography the other day and there was a sentence in there that came to mind this morning. She is telling the story of her parents, rehearsing the history that made them a family. My great-grandfather's first wife had died, leaving him with four children. Shortly thereafter he married my great-grandmother who was only 18 at the time (he was 36). They semi-adopted/raised some nieces and went on to have more children together. Somewhere in the middle of this my grandma comments that my great-grandmother had a nervous breakdown due to all the chaos, and said she didn't blame her. The story goes on, but I was thinking about that one simple statement. My great-grandmother went on to raise all those wonderful children, who also had wonderful children and so on. It is a success story, one that definitely has a happy ending. But if we're not careful, we only see the beginning and the end and don't really give weight to all the in between.
So this is my in between. The details of my "nervous- breakdown" of sorts. (no, I am not having a nervous breakdown- at least not yet/anymore) I just want to clarify that in the middle of the highs and wonderful things, there are definitely lows. Life is hard. For everyone. But sometimes we forget that. We see blog posts, pictures, family photos. We feel inferior. So, yes I made a banner and some tissue paper pom-poms. But my kitchen was a disaster and I was exhausted from staying up late and running all day to try to make it fun.
So there you have it. The high and the low. The fun and the great big mess. But I've thought about it, and the fun is worth the great big mess. So we'll do our best to have more of both. (and try really hard to stay sane)
3 comments:
you know, that is the key to raising kids. Doing the highs and expect the lows. I have had to learn to let a lot of things go in order to keep the fun in things. I still feel like some things aren't worth the effort but a lot of things are. Good for you. if you need any help in the things to do dept, call me!
I appreciate this post. I get to know all the ins and outs of your life, but even then, it's easy to forget the hard and the effort and the lows that you go through and feel that "why can't I be like that???" feeling.
I know that for me, I definitely feel better when I make the effort and go that extra mile, than when I give in to my inner lazy and let those moments of sweetness and fun pass me by.
Here's to forcing myself to do a little more!
Hi miss, I think you are fantastic, and stole your amazing idea with the baby jar to make VT handouts. Thank you for your strength and example! xoxo Chan
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