Good?

Photo Credit: Sarah Cory Photography

I am taking a writing prompt from Danielle at Sometimes Sweet. I think I need a little kick in the rear to get me writing.

  I was raised in a home where you don't say you are good at anything. It is really hard for me to find my strengths because I always think I could improve. It is a huge flaw of mine because when someone compliments me I almost always shoot down their praise with a self putdown instead of just saying "thank you". Over the last few years I have really tried to get better at just saying "thank you" instead of telling people they are wrong. So, this prompt is hard for me. Tell you something I am good at? Well, I will say three things (my favorite number). 1) I am good at getting myself ready each day. 2) I am good at making dinner instead of going out to eat. 3) I am good at keeping dirty dishes off the counter and out of the sink.

Getting ready each day is important to me. Appearance is very important to me. Do I have pajama days? Yes, but not many. I am a very vain person and having my hair done, a little mascara, and some blush on is something I do almost everyday. I will say I only have 2 kids and someday I hope to have more and this skill may fall apart. My mom has always been really good at getting herself ready and I think it is just a learned habit. I feel the need to add that my house is rarely clean, so the time that most people spend cleaning I spend doing my hair and getting myself dressed. I have yet to discover how to do both.

My mom is an amazing cook. I am a decent cook. I am not saying that every meal I make is a winner, but I am good at getting food on the table. A lot of that has to do with meal planning. I am pretty committed to making a meal plan once a week before I go shopping. I started doing this about 4 years ago and it helps so much. There are definitely days that I realize I forgot to take something out of the freezer, but even those days I usually make brinner, nachos, or something easy like that. We didn't eat out much growing up so I don't do it a lot now. We definitely eat out more than I ever did as a kid though.

As I said before my house is rarely clean, but I hate seeing dirty dishes. This has not always been something I have been good at. It really came after Mia was born. I think being a stay at home mom and having to see the dishes all day has made it something I work at. I wouldn't say this is an attractive skill. I am kind of obsessive about it. As I mentioned in my birth story I didn't want to have 3 dishes on the sink when I came home from the hospital. My husband does not share my affinity for a clean counter and for a while it was a point of contention. About a year ago I realized that this was my desire not his. So, I just decided not to care when he leaves a dish out and somehow just deciding that this is something I do for myself and not for anyone else has made it something I want to do and I don't get upset by anyone else leaving dishes out.

Well, that was hard. I feel like once you say you are good at something people will see you the time your hair isn't done, or come to your house the day the dishes are piled up, but being good at something doesn't mean that you do it all the time and I have to remind myself that no one is perfect. Who would want to be? Life would be so boring.

By the way the picture at the top is unrelated. It was just a picture that was taken during Jack's newborn shoot.