Shortfalls

I find that I fall short in so much of life. My house is never clean enough, never organized enough, the laundry is always in a pile somewhere (clean, but unfolded; folded, but not put away; not done and overflowing from the hamper; or currently, all of the above - and yet there are clothes in the closets and drawers...clearly we have too much). Work is never finished, although I do need my paycheck to make ends meet and so it is always mostly done. And then the kids, they never have enough of my time, enough of my niceness, enough of my playfulness, enough activities. I feel like I am always apologizing, which frustrates me, but I am apparently physically incapable of not apologizing even when my heart and head are saying "it is okay, your house is okay, you have a busy life, people get it without being told!!!"

Anyways, this came up today because my mother-in-law is here watching the baby and a cousin stopped by to visit, prompting the apologies. My mother-in-law totally understands and truly does not care about how my house looks. The problem is, she remembers her house looking this way. Growing up, my house never looked this way. There are four kids in my family, my mom volunteered for everything, carted us all over creation as we all played a sport, took piano and girl scouts, and who knows what else. She kept the house pristine, the laundry done, and dinner was hot and on the table when my dad arrived home from work. There is lots of backstory to that, but the point of this is that my house growing up is the utopia I cannot reach. Obviously I am not a stay at home mom and therefore, do not have the time during the day to devote to volunteering at the kids school or doing that kind of stuff. Incidentally, I work from home and do have time to devote to the house since I don't have co-workers talking my ear off all day. Not that it helps...

The point of this post is that I have accepted these things - I have little kids and a demanding job, things just will not get done. Sometimes I will be overwhelmed by the fact and other times, I will deal with it just fine. This post is about Bento Box Lunch boxes. WTF, moms?! Do people really do this? Out of love? I can't. I just can't. I can't wrap my head around these heart shaped sandwiches and butterfly cucumber slices. Why? Do you people love making these lovely lunches? Also, do your kids eat this shit? Because mine eat like 3 things. And it doesn't matter how I dress up those veggies, they will only eat broccoli and tomatoes, so don't even bother. I tried. I bought these little sandwich and snack containers, because they were cute, but also to save on baggies. Unfortunately they require daily washing, so the kids only get to take them 2-3 times/week as the rest of the time they are sitting in the sink.

Some people think the "teat-nazis" are ruining it for all moms. I think it's the bitches posting these lunch boxes to pinterest.

Thanks for listening!
~Erin