Keeping it Real | This is the Opposite of a Clean Slate

So a few days after Christmas I posted this glorious iPad photo of the living room in all it's glory... freshly picked up with the sun shining through!

And then I posted these lovely sentiments about getting the Christmas decorations down and having a clean slate before New Year's.

#yeahright

In the interest of full disclosure this is what my house looked like on the first day of 2015...

If you're thinking it still looks a lot like Hurricane Christmas in my house you are absolutely correct.

But what can I say? I am dreading dragging the Christmas tree outside because of all the needles it's going to drop. I had a few work deadlines come up so I had to put chores on hold. We got a TON of packages from our generous families so we basically had a second round of Christmas last night.

All in all, our New Year's Day looked pretty chaotic. 

But it's okay. I got the papers and boxes all put away in the garage and J is home for the weekend so he'll be able to help me tackle the tree and rearrange the living room. And I spent time reading with my girls and hanging up their new swing and getting out some fabulous sticker projects for them.

Who cares if there's still confetti on the floor!

I just wanted to make sure you don't think my life always looks like this...

...in fact, that's actually pretty rare lately!

But my life did look like this last night... 

Germany sure knows how to bring in the New Year with a bang! I hope you all have an awesome start to 2015. Even if it's a tad messier than you had hoped for ;-)

Let's Be Real - Life Lessons | Taste the Rainbow of Life

I am so so so terrible at balance. It's a constant life lesson that I get slammed in the face with on a regular basis. Something I'm always working on! 

Strangely enough, it's been helpful lately to think of colorful produce when I think of what I'm going to accomplish...

They say when you're trying to focus on getting the recommended variety of fruits and vegetables in your diet to think of eating a rainbow throughout the week. 

So you don't have to eat the rainbow every day to reap the benefits! You eat it throughout the week and you cover all those nutritional bases! 

You can take this idea a step further and apply it to what you accomplish on a daily/weekly basis.

Sure, you can't "do it all" every day without killing yourself. But you can certainly do it all if you spread it throughout the week!

It's about balance. But it's BIG PICTURE balance.

For example... I can't blog, do yoga, read to my kids for 20 minutes, do a photo shoot, study my NYIP course, cook gourmet meals, read, go on a lunch date with my husband, study German, volunteer, clean the house, connect with friends and family, and relax EVERY DAY!

But throughout the week? I totally got this!

I think this concept is an important life lesson for us all, and especially for the Moms reading (because I feel like we especially suck at cutting ourselves slack on the to-do's) - just focus on the weekly rainbow. 

You can't fit it all into each and every day! You just can't!

Some days, you're going to eat popcorn for dinner. Or not do anything productive all day. 

And you know what? 

It's totally fine. I won't judge. But you gotta stop judging yourself because you couldn't do it all today.

I want to strive to eat my fruits and veggies, but I want to enjoy the colors and flavors of junk food, too! I want to feel free to get twenty million things done in a day, but also take a day here or there to stay in my pajamas all day and read a novel! I'm just being real... it's a tough life lesson for me to learn! 

Just because the big picture is balance doesn't mean every day is supposed to be perfect! 

So does anyone else have this problem in their life? Can I get an amen?