Twilight Anyone??

I’m a reader, I love books, and I love the places various tales take me. I usually stick with political thrillers or drama with just enough action to keep it a page turner. Authors like Vince Flynn and John Grisham are always safe bets for me. I do have an addiction though, when I start a good book it is hard for me to put it down, even to sleep. There are a lot of people out there like me, we’re readers. Then there are people who aren’t like me, they don’t enjoy being engrossed in a book, my husband is one of those. He always says, “Why read about something, when you can do it?” to which I reply,

“I doubt I’ll be a Navy Seal anytime soon, so I’ll let Mitch Rapp handle it.”

But lately a phenomenon has occurred, not only amongst teens but in adults and tweens, the “non readers” are reading, and they are finding that they LOVE the Twilight series. So after so many of my friends told me I HAD to read them, I started and wow was I amazed. I usually hate romance; ugh...gag me with a spoon! I don’t want to hear about other people’s sex lives or how true and deep they’re love is, and all the girly drama, no thanks. I’m a tom boy at heart.

But Twilight is different, and I can’t really explain it. Maybe it’s the fact that the main character is so plain, or believes that she is, maybe it’s that you begin to question everything about yourself and what you might do in her situation, or maybe it’s that the author seems to have a time portal and can take the reader back to their high school days.

I didn’t enjoy high school very much, and so in a lot of ways can relate to Bella, it helps that she is a total klutz, is extremely pale, hates the rain, doesn’t know a thing about fashion and would rather be in torn up sweat pants than a prom dress. That is just so me. But the more I talk with my friends about these books the more I see that we all can relate to Bella, and that’s nice because she is the girl you HAVE to love.

Another wonderful aspect of these books is what I like to call “the butterfly effect.” No, not the movie, but the fact that after 10 years of marriage, kids, diapers, lack of sleep, pure exhaustion, and well falling into the “comfort zone” of life, it takes a lot to give me butterflies in my tummy. You know how it is, you don’t have the questions and the excitement that you did in high school with your first kiss, “is he gonna hold my hand,” “should I ask this person to the dance?” all of those high school anxieties that at the time were so obnoxious are now just memories. Twilight brought me back though and gave me butterflies, and it was wonderful. It helps too that while I relate to Bella my husband is the perfect Edward, athletic, hot and well my soul mate.

So thank you Stephanie Meyer, for writing the first romance series that I love, for giving me butterflies, and for showing me that the comfort zone doesn’t have to be boring or a bad thing, especially if “your Edward” is willing to play along.

Messes Clean-Up, Memories Don't

There was a time in my life that I wanted everything perfect in my house. From no water drops on the facet in the bathroom, to the perfect tri-folded hand towel hanging off my oven, my vacuum tracks had to be parallel, my pantry in alphabetical order. To enter our home our company had to remove their shoes, and heaven forbid someone forget to use a coaster, I mean of all the atrocities!

Then I had kids…

I tried for a while to maintain my level of organization and cleanliness. But somewhere between colic, and brightly colored plastic toys strewn all over the living room I realized it didn’t matter. No matter how much I cleaned, the house would still look like a toddler lived in it, there was no hiding that, and I’ve actually come to embrace it.

Before I had kids there was no excuse to have a messy home, but now, while I still have the urge to have things spotless I understand that it just isn’t gonna happen, and with a 3 year old and 6 week old even if by the grace of God I did have the energy to get it done, well it would be destroyed in minutes, if not seconds. And so I’ve decided to not worry about it, well that’s a lie, I still worry about it, but I guess I don’t allow it to consume me as much I used to.

It isn’t just a surrender though, I haven’t given up a perfect home just because I’m exhausted, I’m also doing it for my kids. I know that sounds funny, but seriously I don’t ever want my kid’s only memories of me to be cleaning or yelling about someone making a mess. Recently when I asked a very good friend of mine how she got so much fun stuff done; along with all the work she said something to the effect of… “I view life like a great big pie fight, a big mess but so worth the clean-up.” And that is how she lives, involved in everything, exhausted not just from the work but from the fun. I want to be like that. And I want my girls to see me that way.

I want my girls to know that if they accidentally splatter cake batter on the ceiling because they raised the beaters before turning the mixer off, that it’s okay! I’m thankful they were making a cake! I want them to remember that nothing is more fun than getting covered in sand at the beach, even if that sand stays on my kitchen floor for a week. I want them to remember the perfect recipe for making a piñata, and that recipe includes getting the batter EVERYWHERE, it also includes adding a week to whatever drying time you had planned on.

Most importantly I want them to remember that they are so much more important than how our house looks. Their lives, their goals, their experiences will always trump a spotless counter top. Sure I’ll keep the house clean, it will be tidy, but will I say “no” to my daughter wanting to finger paint her next masterpiece? Absolutely not, because long after I’ve mopped up the paint and used stain stick on her clothes, I’ll have the image of her smiling face in my head as she sheepishly brings me her masterpiece and says,

“I made it for you, mom.”