Imperfections

Once again....a long, exhausting day!!! Preparing for my sister in law to arrive with her family. We are so excited to see them!!! I'm starting to feel like I feel a vacation myself.  My neck & back pain is out of control & it gets soooo hard for me to function but, I do what I can. Thank God the boys step in and help do most of the hard stuff when hubby is at work. Not sure what I would do without them. I can't help to want things neat & in order (I'm a Virgo....it's in my nature). Plus, it's the way I was raised. If I made 1 spelling error on my homework, it would be ripped up & I'd have to start again. Whatever questions I got wrong on a test....I'd have to write a hundred times so I wouldn't forget it. Oh, and whoever knows me well, knows that I ALWAYS had to clean.....everything!! I remember not being able to find socks for church & my mom dumped the whole drawer & made me perfectly match all of my socks. It never made me learn....it just made me resent my mother & wants things to be perfect & lets face it, that doesn't exist. Anyway, now that I have my own kids, I let them make mistakes, I let them cross things out on their homework even though I secretly wish they would just do it over =) They don't always get every question right on their tests but I applaud them for their effort. They don't always keep their rooms perfectly neat, but I want them to learn that imperfection is okay. I don't want them to be like me.....if I write something & it's not neat enough, I do it over. If there's a mess or something to be done....I stress about it. I'm learning that being a bit sloppy is okay (just take a peek in my closet & you'll see it's true). lol It's crazy that it took years to teach me to go above & beyond...to be a neat freak and now I ask, "for what"?? I remember I used to argue with my mom about making my bed every morning. I use to say "why does it matter?? No one's gonna see it anyway!!" Now that I am grown....I rarely make my bed =) Trying hard to be perfect knowing that it's never attainable is just setting yourself up for disappointment. It's not as fun as just letting go & being a kid!

~~The fastest way to break the cycle of perfectionism and become a fearless mother is to give up the idea of doing it perfectly - indeed to embrace uncertainty and imperfection.~~

~~There is a kind of beauty in imperfection~~