Weird Pictures and Reality

Maybe you can relate to this...I used to have thoughts of how life with my boys would be like a scene from a movie.  We would all wake up looking beautiful, eat a well-balanced home-made breakfast (that I made from scratch at 6:00 am, after rising even earlier to shower and get ready before the rest of the house awakens), and while I bake bread in the kitchen with an apron on, the boys are sitting upright at their little table, hair perfectly combed, reading books and asking intelligent questions in a very normal tone of voice.

I'm sure it's glaringly obvious that this is not my life...another nod to accepting the imperfect as perfect for me.  A few weeks ago, we visited Mike at work for the first time during business hours.  We got to eat lunch with him and hang out at his office for a bit.  During lunch we were taking a few pictures like this lovely one, of my three favorite boys:

Mike tried to get a great shot of me with the boys too, and the results were a more clear indicator of my true reality.   While it doesn't fit my slightly boring, idealistic imagery of the perfect life, its much more interesting (especially when Max wiped his saliva-covered hand on my mouth).

Whew! Honestly, I love their energy and how they live life to the fullest in every waking moment. Finally, they checked out Dad's office before we headed home.

I find it interesting how all these perfect images I have in my head are actually much less appealing when real life starts to happen and I see how amazing every un-planned moment is. I'm learning that the real beauty is in living fully engaged in each moment. Closing the computer when the boys are awake (which is why I am not blogging much these days...oops), giving them my full attention and making our day more about them than it is about me.  That's when I start to feel like things are just how they should be, weird pictures and all.