Once upon a time...

...FAIRY TALES!! As little girls we are drawn to these stories of the prince rescuing the princess or the knight in shining armor riding up on his white horse and sweeping you off your feet...then the "happily ever after." As we grow older we keep the fairy tale mentality, but transform it from storybook fantasy to the realistic events of life. From jobs to dating to marriage to appearance, we find some sort of romanticism about all of it. As a nurse I can tell you that we go into our first job thinking we are going to change the world! I would venture to say that teachers, firefighters, policemen and a myriad of other professions think the same way. In reality, each of these professions truly are changing the world, but not in the scope that we pictured before we started working. In dating, we assume that we will meet "the One" and know from the first glance. Unfortunately, even dating is not that glamorous sometimes...even when we do find "the One." Move into marriage and as many couples realize even in the first year, it's hard to live with someone who doesn't see things or do things the right way(of course our way is better!) Even after all these things have not been the fairy tale we expected, we still manage to maintain the picture perfect scenarios of what it will be like when we have children. The magazines(EVEN the parenting ones) don't help. They picture "life" and it's always so perfect...the neatly groomed yard, perfectly dressed children, healthy meal on the table, spotless floors (with a cute little wooden truck on the floor in the background), even the dog is perfectly groomed and clean with his cute little bed in the corner! It's not until you're in 3 kids deep that you realize, those pictures are as airbrushed as the model for makeup!! The reality of life in this stage hits hard on days when your ENTIRE house is a disaster from remodeling one little area, you are 2 days behind on laundry and it looks like every closet in the house vomited in your laundry room, the 2 year old wakes up RIGHT as you are putting the baby down for a nap(THIS was supposed to be your 5 min shower for the day!) At this point you know the day is spiraling downward faster than the water in the tub, because now you didn't even get that "fresh" start you needed to make it to bedtime! This is where you put down the storybooks and magazines and accept the chaos with grace...remembering "there is a time for every season of life" and all too soon "this too shall pass" and we will be left in the dust picking up the pieces of our heart if we don't just relax and enjoy the chaos!