It’s the third Thursday of the month which means it’s Tips and Tricks Thursday for the Babywise Friendly Blogging Network today. (We are posting a week early this month due to Christmas next week.) And…my drafts are empty which means I’m writing this now while my girls are in their Room Time!

This should be interesting….

Our topic this month is “Goals and Resolutions”. I figured I’d write a little about my recovering Perfectionist self.

I’ve come a looooooooong way in this since becoming the mom of two children. I learned pretty quickly a two-year-old and newborn don’t leave much room for Mama to keep a perfectly clean house. Pre-kids, my house was a model home. For real, it was. Our subdivision was still under construction and they asked if I would be willing to have my house be a model home for prospective home-buyers to take a look. They would compensate me with a Lowe’s gift card. It felt like my part-time job and I kept the house ready to show at any time. Easy with no kids in the house!

Motherhood has taught me more than I ever thought possible. One of which is to let my perfectionism go in these particular ways:

1. My house is far from a model home now and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It is lived in by myself, my husband, my girls and my brother. Sure, it’s clean. The floors are never sparkly clean for long (maybe for the first 10 minutes I steam or mop them) and the bathroom floors are never clean because they are white. If I don’t get to one of my cleaning chores for the day/week, I let it go. There is always next week and odds are something more important (like one of my girls) kept me from that chore this week.

2. If Little Bug doesn’t match, I don’t have a coronary over it. She started wanting to dress herself, and for the most part, she does a pretty good job of matching outfits. But sometimes, she comes out and I inwardly shake my head. And then I let it go. Because isn’t it the style to go mismatching to the grocery store with Dad on Saturday morning? Now, if she’s leaving the house with me I probably will suggest an alternative but if she is dead set on what she already has on, does it really matter?? No- I let it go. Unless, of course, we are leaving for family pictures. I will intervene then! (We did get our family pics taken yesterday! I will share some pics soon!)

3. I do less. Pinterest is evil, fellow Mamas. It has a way of making us feel less than and like a failure-mom. Stay away, for the most part. Oh, perhaps I should erase all that, since I am going to be pinning this post to the Babywise Board! But hear me out on this. Guard yourself on Pinterest. Don’t go there thinking you are going to do everything you ever pin there. Go there with something specific in mind. Get what you need and focus on that one thing. Forget the rest. You don’t have to do it all. You shouldn’t do it all.

I’m sure there are more ways I’ve relaxed my perfectionist ways in the past 4.5 years, but Room Time is nearly over and I must get this published. I hope you got my overall message of LET IT GO! Give yourself grace. Life isn’t perfect and you don’t have to be, either.

I hope everyone is enjoying this Christmas Season. I know for those of you that are in the middle of your infertility battle, this time of year is especially hard. I will never as long as I live forget walking around JC Penney’s in 2007 with my mother as we were Christmas shopping and tears were literally streaming down my face as I tried my hardest to get into the Christmas spirit. My heart was just aching though and there was nothing I could do to stop my tears walking around that store. I had so hoped to tell my family that Christmas that I was pregnant but instead I started my period days before Christmas and all hopes of that dream had died for that year. Three Christmases later, in 2010, God granted me that dream in the most unusual way. Hope came at Christmas in the form of a baby named Jesus. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. Hang in there. Hope is coming.

- Elaine