Babies, Brownies and Blessings

For months (maybe years?) I've been searching for the perfect pair of red shoes. A cute little pair to wear with jeans and a t-shirt or a cute dress- versatile and adorable and comfortable. High expectations, I know! A couple weekends ago I came across the.perfect.pair at Sears for $17 and I had to have them!  How cute are these? Like a school girl I was so excited to wear them! The weather was iffy but I didn't care. We were going to walk around the mall for a few hours but I didn't care. They were a little bit sloppy but I didn't care.   After a few hours of shopping, this is what I had to show for my cute red shoes- a big old blister on my ugly little toe (FYI, that polish on the little toe is from September. Truly I should take better care of those babies).Bummer. Lesson learned but here's the deal: they are darn cute. And I'm going to keep wearing them. It's a price I'm willing to pay. ;)

...Valentine's Day snuck up on me like every other year. Seriously, I do realize it's always February 14th but I just can't pull it together in an organized manner! Thankfully I have a husband who does well with that particular holiday which makes me a grateful woman. The boys woke to a balloon by their beds and a scavenger hunt for a box of chocolates. BabyGirl to a life-sized bear balloon and a much smaller box of chocolates (he is a smart man!). I, to a dozen red roses on my night stand. :) The perfect start to the day ended in a very normal way... ...one bear balloon cut apart by a 5 year old who was being disciplined and was alone in his room with the balloon and a scissors (why the heck did he have those?!?) resulting in the permanent loss of his box of chocolates. ...a beautiful plate of fruit creatively Valentiney rejected by two of my "not-hungry" children (who, FYI, are ALWAYS hungry). ...an early bedtime for my artificial-flavor-and-color dr...

Have you noticed the lack of blogging lately? (I know you have better things to do but maybe you've missed me?) ;) It's not the only thing lagging in my life. Our building project and subsequent living changes have spiraled me into a state of paralysis. That bad, you ask? Nope, can't blame it on the in-laws (who are being wonderfully tolerant of us!). I find that when I'm unable to control things perfectly I become ineffective and paralyzed in those areas. If I can't write the perfect blog that hundreds dozens will love and resonate with, if I can't make the house perfectly clean, if I can't get the laundry completely done, the house totally clean- it's then that I'm tempted to stop trying. And not just stop trying but start to feel inadequate, ineffective and generally paralyzed by the drive for perfection.   What to do? We all know I (and unfortunately, you too) are imperfect. There's no way around it. Funny enough, perfection ...