Reality blogging

A few people have been commenting lately on the reality of my blog. It represents the things I most love in my life. It touches on food, fitness (or lack thereof), friends, books, scrapbooking, and photography because these are the things that I enjoy. In addition, overwhelmingly so, it focuses on my children and the activities that we do together because that was why I started blogging in the first place...so that grandparents and family out of state could watch the girls grow.

A couple of weeks ago I read a post that said something like (and I'm paraphrasing because I can't remember where I read it to give them credit), "Blogging is like reality TV. You can edit and choose what you want people to see." This is true about my blog as well. Four or five people have commented on how "happy" or "easy" our life seems. Well, first off, we are happy. So if it is reflected on my blog, than I hope you can enjoy a piece of our happiness. Second off, I would like to think of myself as a positive person, so I blog about the positive things in my life. This in no way means that my life is not filled to the brim with plenty of sass-talk, fighting, misunderstandings or melt-downs. It doesn't mean that there isn't a pile of laundry staring me in the face as I type this. It doesn't mean that my house isn't a complete disaster right now or that I don't want to pummel the UPS guy for just ringing my doorbell during nap time. Posting our advent calendar activities got a lot of mixed review...some nice emails about the fun we were having, and other comments that I couldn't bring myself to publish. The truth is, I don't publish these things for you...I publish them for me. I like to look back on our year and reminisce. I like to challenge myself to do new things with the girls in hopes that they become well-rounded people. I like to think that even though I am messing up numerous times a day an hour that at least I am trying. I plan lots of activities for my children because they are extremely active and need an outlet for their energy. That in itself is a challenge.

I enjoy reading "real" blogs. I find relief hearing others re-tell how they had to sit on their child to strap them in to their car seat because they were throwing a tantrum...I've been there. How they lost their temper and yelled at their child when in all reality their child did nothing wrong...done that to. How they battle with life, fitness, eating, cooking, people-pleasing, etc...I battle with all of these things. I am not ashamed to talk about it, however, when I post anything negative on my blog, I get a slew of sympathies that are unneeded or a list of compliments that are insincere. It is not my intention to skew our lives to portray an easy life or an overly happy family. My struggles are the like most peoples struggles. I struggle with being a good mother, wife, sister, daughter, friend, housekeeper, cook, volunteer, employee, etc. However, these struggles are nothing compared to what many others are facing. I have a "happy" family, with 3 healthy children, a husband who loves me, and employment that gets the bills paid. So, to my friends who question how I get my children to do these activities without fighting, I wish I lived in that alternate universe where all siblings just get along....but, I don't. I also don't see myself running to get the camera the next time all h*** breaks loose at our house either!