Behind the scenes at The Polished Pickle.

One evening as I was getting the boys ready for bed Sparky started whining about the T-shirt I tried to put on him. "No," he said, "those are my adventure clothes." It's true, we do a lot of adventuring. By nature I am constantly seeking new experiences for myself and my boys, and those outings look pretty darn fun when packaged up nicely for a blog post.

What you don't see is... all the chasing down kids before they run into the street... whining, tired, and hungry little grouches when I don't plan ahead well enough and we stay out instead of having nap-time... undone chores and back-burnered responsibilities...

I'm not saying that I would change our thrilling agenda of hikes, bike rides, exploration, hunts, and gathering of life-moments. No, not at all, I choose it, and I fancy myself a pretty good tour-guide. But knowing that I cannot do "it all" means that I must, in that choice, learn to forgive myself for the other things I don't do as well.

Confession time.

1. I have really really really hard time brushing the boys' teeth every day. Sometimes I forget and go several days before something reminds me (like when they breath on me) that I need to take that minute and a half to teach them proper hygienic habits. I seriously have three signs up in my house that say "BRUSH BOYS TEETH" and I still don't always see to it.
2. We eat grilled-cheese sandwiches on white bread with processed cheese for almost every lunch (when we're not having top-ramen, or peanut-butter and jelly). By the time we rush into the door, back from an excursion, or finally put away all the craft supplies or science experiment stuff, we are starving and I make the first, easy thing I see. Do I wish I was a better cook? Yes. Am I willing to make the time sacrifice every day? Not right now. I'm not superwoman, you know.
3. We don't have a TV but we might as well, given the hours we spend on net-flix. The kids are practically fluent in Spanish from watching Go Diego, Go. When I don't let them watch TV, I have trouble finding time to not have B.O.
4. We wrestle and play, but hardly allow ourselves to just be still together. I have to force myself to sit down and read them books, not because I don't want to, but because I feel like I might fall asleep the second I stop moving.

Those are just a few of the many areas in which I "fall short" when I start to compare myself to others or just the ideal mother I created in my own mind. I could go on and on, really, but here's the deal...

A lengthy presentation of all of my worst qualities would (a.) be incredibly uninspiring (b.) make me feel crummy about myself and (c.) cast shadow over any goodness I might have to share.

The long and short of it all is this; no one has it all together all of the time. Not me. Not you. Not anyone. And that's ok.

I read a good cooking blog, not to make myself feel like a wretch in the kitchen, but to become inspired in that area. I hope you come here knowing that although I don't really post my most horrible motherhood "recipes," I have them. That said, I hope I can inspire you in areas of spontaneity, perpetual childhood shenanigans, and creative adventuring.

One last blurb: While creating a dragon for fighting the other day, Sparky let me know he was hungry. I seriously handed him a block of cheese. A BLOCK OF CHEESE, PEOPLE. If you ever think for one second that I've got this whole motherhood thing figured out... please think again.

I hope you enjoyed this 'stop by our house without calling ahead' moment with The Polished Pickle. Hopefully we'll be put together by the time you stop by again, but I wouldn't count on it.