When the party venue calls to tell you there's been a mixup and they DON'T have the dinosaur chocolate cake you requested for your son's birthday tonight, here are some of the thoughts fired through my brain. “Oh gosh! Now I have to drive 25 minutes one way to Whole Foods because they have cute organic cakes! OR I must splurge and get a REALLY expensive cake at the fancy bakery down the road! (Sigh and shrug shoulders, stepping into reality) OR I could just go to Kroger and get an ugly sheet cake and put toy dinosaurs on it, which would be easiest and cheapest. And it's for FIVE YEAR OLDS WHO DON'T CARE.” It's amazing how I was about to make my life really complicated and expensive, wasting precious time that I don't have…to make sure that all the PARENTS at Moses' party think I have all my Pinterest mom ducks in a row. ????In fact, if I stop and ask myself WHY I do many things, the motive is to make me LOOK better than I actually feel. And many times, I FEEL like the very imperfect mom that I am who is far from having all her shiitake mushrooms together. (Pardon my fungi French). For years, I was so petrified of FEELING my inadequacy—staying busy to numb it out with achievements and successes—making sure the pictures looked perfect. But these days, I'm pulling the reality of my tough feelings close….they're tenants that currently live in my heart….learning to love ALL of me like Jesus does….even before it ever changes. ❤ #MosesGraeLionheart #turns5 #instablog