Messy

Life is just so... messy.

A synonym for messy might be... gray. But "messy" is just a tad... messier. And more poignant. More dead on.

Life is just so... messy.

A friend of mine who has three kids under the age of six -- AND who writes a blog -- was describing a very terrible, no good, perfectly awful day. My reaction, which was not much different than the reaction of other moms with kids as old as or older than hers, was: this is so NORMAL.

Normal.

What the heck does THAT mean???

Normal = messy

How can "normal" POSSIBLY be the same as "messy"?

Because real life IS messy.

And real life IS... normal.

We do our best.

We get tired. We get cranky.

Our kids get tired and cranky. Harsh words are exchanged.

Orders are given. Retorts. Long periods of silence. Raw emotions.

By BOTH sides.

Hugs are given. Kisses. I love you's.

And they are all genuine. All heartfelt. All... real.

All... normal.

We get tired. We lose our patience. We yell. We say things we cannot believe we are even saying. Our kids, who seem to have inherited -- or absorbed by osmosis -- our smartass, sarcastic tendencies, give it all right back to us.

And we wonder...............................

WHAT?????

Who we are?

What we are doing?

And aren't all other moms just like WAY more squared away and Martha Stewarty than we are????

It's normal.

It's freaking normal.

That's all I've got to say.

We have been there, done that. We are all just so incredibly...

Human.

Normal.

Abnormal.

Normally abnormal.

So incredibly normal in how "abnormal" we think we are.

Take your pick. It's all pretty much the same thing.

Messy isn't necessarily a bad place to be.