Messy Memories are Beautiful Too

Whether you are a blogger or a reader, I can guarantee there are times that you've read a blog post somewhere about a recipe, a family outing, a craft, or a decorated room and felt inadequate. It's especially easy when the family is dressed in catalog-perfect clothing and the children don't appear as if they ever whine or hit each other or refuse to share toys or pick their noses (not the my kids do any of that).

Every so often, I'll look around at the toys scattered across the floor of the girls' bedroom and feel guilty that we aren't downstairs knitting sweaters or making linguine noodles from scratch or something.

I promised the girls yesterday that we'd bake pumpkin shaped cookies and watch It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown--a childhood classic. It was a busy day...I had errands to run, some work to catch up on at home, kindergarten drop-off and pick-up, dinner to make, you name it.

The girls were looking forward to the cookies so much and I had promised, so while they watched a cartoon, I whipped up the cookie dough and it cooled in the fridge while I powered through some emails. I let them each cut a few cookies with the cookie cutters (I did the rest to save time) and soon it was time to ice.

I bet you can't tell that these are two pumpkins and an acorn, but I'm okay with that. I decided to take a pic because I started feeling guilty that I wasn't using homemade royal icing, expertly piped out and decorated with skill.

But they still taste good.

The girls had a blast curling up on the couch with me to watch the movie in their pajamas; and I thought about the fact that activities don't always have to be perfectly planned out like a magazine spread. Sometimes the impromptu moments are the most fun, even if they are sticky or take a little longer than you imagined they would. Real life doesn't look like the pages of a magazine or a perfectly styled website.

Sometimes messy memories are the most beautiful.

Do you have any messy memories?