In Real Life: Snippets from the Other Side of the Screen

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Over the weekend I read a new post from Amy Roberts, a mommy blogger I follow. In speaking of the importance of living an offline life, Amy made a statement that resonated well with me:

Live your offline life first so what you do online is vibrant and real, encouraging and inspirational.

Lynnette Kraft, another blogger I read, once said it this way:

Don’t live to blog… blog because you LIVE.

Here at Des Moines Moms Blog, our mission isn’t just about the online world. It’s largely about what’s happening offline, too. As convenient, helpful, and fun as blogs and social media are, we know that REAL LIFE is what matters most. To borrow Lynnette’s phrase, we blog because we live—because YOU live—and not the other way around.

DMMB Team-1

As I sat down to write this post, my heart felt full… of no one thing in particular, but simply of LIFE. On the other side of this screen, LIFE is happening to me—and to YOU—at every moment of every day. Sometimes life is more interesting and enjoyable than other times; but at all times it is meant to be SHARED.

In real life, LIFE is happening to me; and it fills my heart to overflowing, spilling out through my fingertips and onto this page. While I can’t “share” life with all of you in the physical, present sense, I do find much satisfaction in sharing it here on the blog… in letting my words be inspired by my life.

And what my heart dictates I share with you today is just that. LIFE….

025-edit squareIn real life, I am in a constant struggle to find balance among all the good things that vie for my time and attention. I spent a day and a half last week working on a sewing project for the girls’ dolls but once again failed to spend the five minutes it would have taken to fix the loose button on my husband’s shorts (which has rendered them unwearable since… the end of last summer…).

004-edit squareIn real life, I felt loved and cherished when my husband voluntarily took this past Friday off work so he could take the family to the Mall of America… and when he stayed up late the next night helping me to catch up on the housework that had waited until then because I had been busy playing American Girls with our daughters.

In real life, circumstances tugged at my heartstrings when Isabel fell flat on her chin on009-edit square the gymnasium floor Saturday, leaving her in obvious need of stitches. And when the Urgent Care nurse offensively balked at my intention to bring my husband and other three children into the room with me because “there was so much stuff to get into back there, especially with ‘so many’ kids,” my resolve to let their good behavior prove her wrong was as sure as my desire to not face the stitching alone.

LIFE is happening, in your life and in mine. It comes with struggles and successes, with the lovable and the not-so-lovely. Life gives us the good and the bad, but it’s all made better when we live it together.

So tell me… what’s happening on your side of the screen?

6 COMMENTS

  1. Angela,
    I enjoy reading your blog when I get the chance! And since I am a stay at home mom/house wife/office manager for our construction business/work on site “employee” for my husband and all the little jobs that come with those “titles” lol…I know exactly what you mean about finding a balance between all of those things! Taking the time to actually play with your kids and focus solely on them, between the dishes laundry that pile up daily and in my world keeping the office work up, running after material for job site or putting in a couple hours here and there to make things go a little smoother. I can relate to many things you have said in your blog, and you can put words to some things I can’t! Look forward to the next one!
    Natalie

    • Thanks for your comment and for your kind words, Natalie. Do you ever feel like just when you get one facet of your life under control, another one completely falls apart? Or is that just me?… 🙂 I think I’m becoming convinced that I’ll never achieve a perfect balance, but I do think it’s worthwhile to continue to strive for it. And it definitely helps to know other moms are walking that same journey with me. 🙂

      Blessings to you,
      Angela

      • Oh yes!!! It’s really more like a teeter totter!!! Lol. You spend very little time in the middle almost balanced! You spend more time at the bottom kicking off to the other side! The second you are like ahhhhhh everything is “just how it should be” and your butt hits the bottom ;). But as you said, knowing I am not the only one makes me feel better just in itself!

  2. Amen, Angela! Beautifully written. And to the offensive nurse at urgent care, I have no doubt that your children made her eat her words!

    • Thanks, Rachel. 🙂 And yes, the kids were extremely well-behaved. I’m sure that nurse sees enough naughty kids in and out of there to have had reason to doubt my kids, but I didn’t doubt them for one second. 🙂

  3. Amen, Angela! And thank you so much for including me in your post! After writing those words, I decided I needed a big break from the internet as a whole. I walked away on Friday and didn’t come back until tonight, a whole week later. Boy, did I need that! It is so easy to get caught up in the online world, that we forget to LIVE offline. So blessed by you!
    Amy

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