It's the Overachiever's Christmas This Year!

No, this is not going to be a rant. If you've stumbled here because you have been eating up all the rants on this topic lately, might as well scoot. We're roasting pumpkins and making my famous pumpkin cake tomorrow so come back then. If not, onto the post...

Maybe it's pinterest. Maybe it's the huge surge in the number of blogs out there. Maybe it's the economy that leaves us wanting to be home and enjoy home more than ever. Whatever it is, you know you've noticed.....

This year is the year of the overachieving Christmas.

It is. It seems that everywhere I turn there are pictures of homes of moms with loads of kids who have houses decorated to the tilt, of moms who planned out activities for every day of December and they make cute garlands or boxes so the kids will be excited to find out each day what the activity is. Blogland is teeming with amazing mantles topped with burlap and painted signs and piles of monogrammed ornaments. And we most certainly can't forget those who plan an elaborate plan of what their cute little red ELF will be doing in the wee hours of the morning. Face it. It's everywhere this year.

Honestly it's all so gorgeous. So why the animosity and all these blog posts circling around laughing (mixed with a twinge of bitterness) at these overachieving moms? I won't go so far as to say I think it's jealousy but I'll teeter on the edge of saying it, and will admit to thinking it :) And at times I'd be guilty of it. It's hard not be when you can't keep your dishes clean let alone take a simple shower and a mom of NINE has a house like this (Lisa you are my hero and truly an inspiration to me and many others)

Above is Lisa from the Pennington Point's AMAZING home!

 There have been times in my life where I had to step back from these types of amazing blogs due to stirrings of discontentment in my own heart. Jealousy has a way of making you look at your life as being less than it even is. It makes it hard to even enjoy the blessings you have. Even more so around the holidays where we wish we were the ones creating amazing traditions and memories for our kids when the reality is that we will be lucky to even make them a cup of hot cocoa before Christmas passes. But this year I made peace with the Overachieving Christmases around the web.

I started wondering what it was exactly that created a feeling of longing, or maybe more a feeling of lacking. These women, these amazing and seemingly perfect women (which we know is not true right?) were living lives of INTENTION. It's not the perfect mantles, the endless cute crafts, the perfect holiday treats that made me feel like less of a mom and wife, it was that they had found what I wanted to find, the ability to live lives of INTENTION.When you see the perfect holiday mantle, it's because they went shopping the day after Christmas last year at 80% off with the intention of something nice this year, they picked up a cute star at Goodwill and thought about how cute that would look, they actually planned ahead, writing things on their calendar, it's that they wrapped their lights up last year properly and stored them in an organized manner instead of stuffing them in the box breaking bulbs so they could use them this year - all things that require thought, organization, intention. Same with cute advent ideas, or crafts, of cookies. Traditions require intent.

Clay and I were talking recently about how both of our families were steeped with traditions. Somehow though, we had lost our way and due to our disorganization, our lack of living a life of intention, were not passing any traditions along to our children. It is now our intent to change that.

I choose now to let these types of blogs (and types of women!) inspire me instead of make me feel inferior. It's not inspiration to make my house look like theirs, or to have things measure up. It's inspiration to be intentional. So when I look at all these overachieving Christmases I don't see overachieving, I see intentional Christmases - ones where parents desired to create traditions and memories that would be precious to their children and made it a priority in their lives. And I think it great. It inspires me to be better, to do better. The Lord wants us to INTENTIONALLY glorify Him in all we do whether that be how we treat our neighbor, how we keep the homes He blesses us with, or how we raise up our children. I feel so blessed that there are women out there, and that their lives are so accessible through the internet, that show me that I can do more, be more with the Lord's help. So onto my intentional Christmas. Pumpkin cake tomorrow it is!