My Kitchen..... In All Her Glory

    Well folks, there she is. In all her glory. My kitchen. As a home baker, I'd thought about posting a photo of myself, perfectly coiffed and styled of course, in my glistening kitchen just so the world could view the perfect and ideal environment from henceforth the equally "perfect" cookies are birthed............excuse me for a moment......just trying to contain my laughter........But then it occurred to me how much work that would take. Ya know, to make myself appear to be something that I'm not (striking a chord with anyone yet?) This is how my kitchen typically looks on any given day. When I'm ready to get in cookie zone it takes me a solid thirty minutes of straightening and cleaning just to have the space to get to work. We live here. We live here hard. And making yall think I've got it all together isn't doing anybody any favors. That's a lot of pressure and heaven knows the last thing I need is more stuff to keep up with. And, most importantly, nobody likes a Perfect Peggy! I have unfollowed people on social media on numerous occasions just for appearing to be perfect. I don't need those people in my life. And I'm pretty sure they're unicorns anyway. As my dear friend, Lynn, once said as I was telling her about one said perfect person, "Oh honey, you know she's got three Consuelas up in there." For every photo you see online of a friend who is still in her high school size 2, there's a kid who had a Happy Meal for dinner 4 nights this week because mom is too busy at the gym to cook. Atleast, that's what I like to tell myself. Ain't nobody doing it all. Oh how silly I now feel when I look back at certain times in my life when I was stressing myself out to keep up with an image that nobody even cared about to begin with.
    The topic of "authentic living" is now one of my faves. Be you. Let it all hang out. People will like you better anyway and it's way easier. If you've ever read anything by Brene Brown you know what I'm talking about. When I embraced the authentic living lifestyle a weight was lifted. I'm ashamed to think that I may have painted a picture that I was perfect. I wouldn't wish that yuck feeling of "less than" on anybody. I sometimes get asked "Stephanie, how do you do it all?!".......I'm sorry. Do what? How do I stay so slim and fit? Or how do I stay so fashion fleek at every given moment? [insert laughing with tears emoji]. Life is hard enough as it is just to get the kids fed and schooled and to their basquillion activites. Let it go and feel the peaceful wave of laundry-needing-to-be-folded wash over you. When someone drops by your house unexpectedly and it's a hot mess, don't apologize. Just let them think it's always like that. ;) They'll love you for it. And for the record, I have TWO Consuelas, not three.