What's your secret?

Do you even have a secret? What keeps you going?

I've been thinking a lot lately about all the woes, triumphs, details that go into doing what I do. I mean, not that what I do is anything magnificent or unique by any stretch of the imagination, but just getting by seems to take quite a bit of planning and elbow grease these days. How do you do it?

I've perused the web and found so many blogs of people who seem to have it all figured out. But do they? The ones who brag about their clean homes and genius children and their blissful marriages and inventive ways to make money...are they for real? If so, they need to stop bragging and start sharing their secrets. PRONTO!

I'm still not sold on the idea of 'having it all.' Everything comes at the cost of something else. Didn't we all take high school economics and learn that "There's no such thing as a free lunch?" (Actually, that's the only thing I remember about that semester. Really.) I mean, I know from my own experience that the days where my house stays cleaner are the same days that my children go ignored...or they're somewhere else entirely!

Ironically, while in the midst of typing this, I was folding clothes, refilling sippy cups of milk and juice for 2YO, preheating the oven to bake up a little batch of muffins and I ended up melting a whole loaf of bread (okay, the plastic bag the bread was in, not the bread) and almost setting a loaf of French bread on fire.) This appears to be one of those days where multi-tasking may not really be my strong suit!

I'm starting to feel like I have a few things figured out. And, as I'm getting the hang of things, something happens to make me land flat on my ass. Just a reminder that I will never have it all figured out, and maybe I probably shouldn't. I, for one, don't want the responsibility of having all the answers. Do you?

So, what makes you tick? What do you live for? Don't say 'MY KIDS'...please! While that is certainly an honorable notion, you cannot place that much responsibility on them. It's not fair. The source of your happiness cannot be them and them alone. That's too much pressure for someone who may have just gotten the hang of tying their own shoes or is trying to conquer long division.

I look at the Faith Hill video up there and I want so much to believe that her life is perfect. Married to a hot, successful guy...CHECK! Amazing career, with bountiful amounts of cash at her disposal...CHECK! Gorgeous....CHECK! Beautiful kids....CHECK! But, I have to remind myself that she is a woman who is married to a man. So basically, they probably argue about him not changing the toilet paper roll and her not helping with the yard work enough just like the rest of us. And if not, then it's something else. We all have our own thoughts and opinions and agendas, which usually leads to the 'problems' part of any relationship as well. It's not that we don't love each other, we just get in each other's way a lot.

Wow. When I started coming up with this idea of what to write about, I had it going in an entirely different direction! Yeah...I should umm....like, take pills for that or something!

So, if you have a secret...please share! I'm off to live the dream....or take a shower, whichever seems more plausible at the time.