I'm not perfect

{yep, that's me. and phoebe, trying to assist with the photo}

I read a number of blogs...more than I probably even realize or care to admit. Some are of people I actually know, while many other are of people I only know through their blogs. Blogs give us a glimpse into a family's everyday life. They are so addictive because they play into our innate voyeuristic tendencies. They make us laugh and cry and cheer and hope and pray for people we don't even know. I don't know if this is good or bad, but I have to say that I really enjoy peeking into peoples' lives and seeing their families grow. However, I must admit something...blogs also make me a bit insecure. I think that despite the best efforts of well-intentioned mommy bloggers to portray real bits of their lives, blogs often display only the choicest bits when it really comes down to it. Digital photography allows us to take hundreds of pictures in one afternoon, leaving only the best ones & most artistic ones to post for the world to see. So our kids look to the world the way we want them to. And, of course, we write what we want to write...so our lives often look pretty darn great. Even those terribly hard parenting moments can be portrayed with a dose of sarcasm and wit...so easy to do in retrospect and in writing. All of this amounts to what I call "blogger insecurity" -- the feeling that your own family just doesn't measure up to the others you see in bloggy land. Admit it...you have felt the same way, right? That other families do cooler things, that other kids wear nicer clothes, that other houses are nicer, that other moms seem to enjoy their kids more, do nicer crafts...blah blah blah. I swear, it is harder than the normal comparisons that we all make to our friends and our friends' kids, because at least with actual live friends we can see the bad with the good. But with blogs, it is often just the good we see.

Anyway, I was thinking of all this today during a particularly difficult morning with my kids. I won't go into the boring specifics, but let's just say it was the kind of day in which I canceled a playdate and stayed in my pajamas until 2pm because I was just trying to do my best to mind the shop here without losing my mind. So I decided to start something called the "I'm not perfect" post in the hopes of starting something out there in blogland...something that will hopefully peel back some of the layers of our lives and let those people who peek into our lives see the ugliness, and I suppose in that the inherent beauty, of our regular lives. So here's the deal...if you decide you want to do this, too, pick up your camera RIGHT NOW. Go around your house and take a picture of everything that you would normally never, ever show on your blog. Be sure to include a self-portrait. And then post the photos (captions optional) in a post entitled, simply, "I'm not perfect." It is a liberating admission. Feel free to link to this post if you don't feel like explaining to your readers why you're doing this. Oh and if you do this and you don't know if I am a regular reader of your blog, please leave me a comment to let me know you did this. And pass it on...encourage all your readers to do the same. Together, we can start a revolution!

Ok, without further ado, a snapshot of my life from this morning:

{sink full of unwashed dishes}

{dead cell phone...charger couldn't be located for an hour}

{important paperwork? maybe...would help if i ever actually went through it}

{boxes from my birthday presents, given to me 2 weeks ago, still in the hallway}

{my bed, unmade, with my bag and its contents strewn all over it...looking for the cell phone charger}

{jeff's bags from his business trip this week...still on the floor}

{toys}

{tv ON to occupy toddler}

{breakfast dishes still on table well past breakfast}