I've been blogging for about a year and a half now and one of the absolutely BEST things to come from blogging has been meeting other Utah bloggers. Up until the moment I was introduced to this spectacular mix of women, I was pretty impressed with myself and my mean-as blogging skills. I only knew a handful of bloggers who only blogged about their kids or posted a recipe a couple times a year. And I was feeling at least as good at this blogging thing as those 3-4 friends were! So, when I stumbled across a group on Facebook for Utah bloggers, I was so excited to get a few tips and make a few friends.
I had no clue I was about to jump head first into a pool full of extremely diverse & very talented women. Blogs about cooking, decorating and how to be a better mother or have a stronger family. There were tons of women who made a good amount of money selling things on a blog and there were even women blogger's with blogs - about how to be better bloggers! And then there was me. The truth is that I began blogging because I wanted to vent my frustrations about a particularly tough time I was having at that time of my life. After only a week of blogging I read back through what I had written and realized I sounded like an angry, bitter woman.
From that moment on I decided to make my blog about uplifting things, quotes or stories that inspired me and gave me strength or just simply made me smile - especially when I had every right in the world to be upset. So that was me, mixed in with those cool bloggers. They began to ask me, "So what do you blog about?" I hadn't felt that intimidated since my visiting teaching fruit loop incident.....
( fade to black...flashback twenty -ish years....)
It all started a few months before my third year of marriage. I think by this time the novelty of being a poor young married couple had worn off a bit and by the time I had just given birth to my daughter, I was not only slacking off in the way I looked, but in the basic look of my tiny home. In the past few years, I had replaced expensive designer jeans with what was my daily go-to look - black stretchy pants (as in MC Hammer style) that served me well through two pregnancies and after! And, my fashionable t-shirt of choice was one of the 5 different free T-Shirts from my husband had received from his job at Word Perfect. Add my way-to-long hair that was usually up in a scrunchy and I was one hot mama! But that wasn't all...
My home was rarely tidy. Happy meal toys, Disney videos (VHS - this was a few years ago), puzzles and swords made out of aluminum foil, random socks (usually only one of each pair) and packages of diaper wipes designed the various rooms and I was oblivious to life outside this type of loving chaos. And then it happened... I was assigned to visit teach the new young married girl who had just moved into the neighborhood. My companion and I packed up the kids as usual and saw the same sisters we usually saw first. We had one house left and we both talked as we drove the block and a half down the street about how fun it would be to meet the pretty new girl in the ward. For the first time ever, we were visiting a sister and both our babies were asleep in their carriers! It had to be a good omen, we both agreed. I had made cookies and my companion was in charge of giving the message. Usually one of us would try to keep our little ones from being disruptive in any way while the other took their turn to do most of the talking. But not this time... this time, while she gave the message, my eyes and my mind began to wander.
We were greeted at the door by our new friend *Jane. She was tall and thin and her hair was NOT in a scrunchy. Jane looked clean and smelled like green apples. Jane had obviously had a shower this morning. Jane told us a little bit about herself.
Her husband was working as an attorney, they both went to the gym each morning before her classes at BYU started, she loved spicy food and Chocolate and she has loved fashion ever since her modeling days...oh yes, and Jane did not have kids yet.
I'll be honest... there were a good 30-40 seconds of my brain saying, "Thin, fashionable, theme, colors that match, nothing from Korea on YOUR walls, probably don't even own a scrunchy....I'm going to have to hate you Jane dear." Basically, If this were a scene from Downton Abbey, I would be Edith.
I remember sitting down on the white sofa, directly across from where Jane was seated - and thinking to myself, "Huh, so there really are people who own white couches..." I was not only in the presence a white sofa - I was sitting on one! This was about the time I noticed the half dried fruit loop stuck to the leg of my oh-so-sexy black stretchy pants. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, I carefully picked and scraped.
 |
| actual hideous wall hanging |
It's not easy to look totally casually while dealing with a fruit loop situation like mine. So, to add to that "hey, nothing going on here!" casual sort of demeanor , I smiled and looked else where. I thought if (heaven forbid) Jane were to all of a sudden say,
"Wait, can I just interrupt the scripture for a moment to find out if that is indeed a fruit-loop on your M.C. Hammer pants?!"
...if that completely normal phrase, were to leave her lips, my plan was to hurry and change the subject by complementing her, telling her she had a lovely home. The problem with THAT plan was her home was like something out of Better Homes & Gardens. It was quite lovely.
I spent the entire 5 minutes of my visiting teaching companion reading a few scriptures and giving the message, picking at a green fruit loop and being in awe of all I saw. The room had a theme and a color pallet to match, which carried into every other room and hall in her home. MY home on the other hand, had not only a "messy kids live here" theme with no color pallet whatsoever - it was accented with slight mix of "Yes it's hideous, but that wall hanging from Korea is from my husband's two year mission, and he loves it". Young Mormon Newlywed Wife problem #281.
Almost an hour later my companion and I were buckling up our kids back into the van, headed back home. The conversation between my companion and I all the way back home consisted of sentences like:
- I'm never wearing a scrunchy again.
- Are scrunchies no longer cool?
- I'm joining the gym tomorrow.
- Instead of the gym, lets just bring her super fattening treats each time we visit.
- What colors go with my "To-Tired-To-Care about the Mess" theme?
- I'm signing up to make every single crafty item there is at the next Relief Society Super Saturday.
- She's really cool. Maybe some of her coolness will rub off on us.
- Maybe some of our coolness will rub off on HER! Amen sister!
- I'm never buying Fruit Loops again.
- Go ahead and buy them. Just stop WEARING them!
Before long, Jane was one of my best friends. Her life seemed just about perfect to me but she had trials and insecurities, just like all women do. I didn't look at her and feel intimidated anymore. I looked at her with admiration and she inspired me to loose the rest of the weight I had put on with my last pregnancy. I chopped my hair off , into a super stylish bob. I wanted to cut it for years but was never brave enough to follow through. And, I made a rule that until he had a room in our house for him to use as an office, all items from Korea could only be displayed in the bathroom.
(Fade to black....return to present day....)
As it turns out, Jane had been nervous to meet us too. She had not noticed the fruit loops or my pants because she was staring at our babies. Jane and her husband had been trying to get pregnant since their honeymoon and she was worried that mothers with little children would only hang out with other mothers with little children. Boy, sometimes it's our insecurities that make us our own worst enemy.
It's been about 20 years since my first visit with Jane, and many things have changed. Yes, I felt intimidated when I met my fellow bloggers, but only for a moment. Instead of intimidated I felt impressed, inspired and honored to be included in their group. Now, if I ever feel depressed about my lack of impressive skills in interior design, fashion, cooking, or sewing - I just hop on Pinterest and simply clicking on a recipe or a great DIY idea makes me feel better. You know, it's the thought that counts! I still buy fruit loops but as far as I know I haven't used those darn loops to accessorize my outfits since that day at Jane's house. If you want to be amazed or inspired by these cool women bloggers - my wonderful friends & family - trust me, you don't have to look far. I'm surrounded by them - and so are you. They blog - We PIN - it's a win/win for everyone.
Go ahead, ask me, "So, Simply June....What do you blog about?" I guess my answer is simply this: I blog about anything that makes me happy & share the things I've used in my fight to never be that angry bitter woman again.
Check out some of my favorite Utah bloggers
HERE!
I've been blogging for about a year and a half now and one of the absolutely BEST things to come from blogging has been meeting other Utah bloggers. Up until the moment I was introduced to this spectacular mix of women, I was pretty impressed with myself and my mean-as blogging skills. I only knew a handful of bloggers who only blogged about their kids or posted a recipe a couple times a year. And I was feeling at least as good at this blogging thing as those 3-4 friends were! So, when I stumbled across a group on Facebook for Utah bloggers, I was so excited to get a few tips and make a few friends.
I had no clue I was about to jump head first into a pool full of extremely diverse & very talented women. Blogs about cooking, decorating and how to be a better mother or have a stronger family. There were tons of women who made a good amount of money selling things on a blog and there were even women blogger's with blogs - about how to be better bloggers! And then there was me. The truth is that I began blogging because I wanted to vent my frustrations about a particularly tough time I was having at that time of my life. After only a week of blogging I read back through what I had written and realized I sounded like an angry, bitter woman.
From that moment on I decided to make my blog about uplifting things, quotes or stories that inspired me and gave me strength or just simply made me smile - especially when I had every right in the world to be upset. So that was me, mixed in with those cool bloggers. They began to ask me, "So what do you blog about?" I hadn't felt that intimidated since my visiting teaching fruit loop incident.....
( fade to black...flashback twenty -ish years....)
It all started a few months before my third year of marriage. I think by this time the novelty of being a poor young married couple had worn off a bit and by the time I had just given birth to my daughter, I was not only slacking off in the way I looked, but in the basic look of my tiny home. In the past few years, I had replaced expensive designer jeans with what was my daily go-to look - black stretchy pants (as in MC Hammer style) that served me well through two pregnancies and after! And, my fashionable t-shirt of choice was one of the 5 different free T-Shirts from my husband had received from his job at Word Perfect. Add my way-to-long hair that was usually up in a scrunchy and I was one hot mama! But that wasn't all...
My home was rarely tidy. Happy meal toys, Disney videos (VHS - this was a few years ago), puzzles and swords made out of aluminum foil, random socks (usually only one of each pair) and packages of diaper wipes designed the various rooms and I was oblivious to life outside this type of loving chaos. And then it happened... I was assigned to visit teach the new young married girl who had just moved into the neighborhood. My companion and I packed up the kids as usual and saw the same sisters we usually saw first. We had one house left and we both talked as we drove the block and a half down the street about how fun it would be to meet the pretty new girl in the ward. For the first time ever, we were visiting a sister and both our babies were asleep in their carriers! It had to be a good omen, we both agreed. I had made cookies and my companion was in charge of giving the message. Usually one of us would try to keep our little ones from being disruptive in any way while the other took their turn to do most of the talking. But not this time... this time, while she gave the message, my eyes and my mind began to wander.
We were greeted at the door by our new friend *Jane. She was tall and thin and her hair was NOT in a scrunchy. Jane looked clean and smelled like green apples. Jane had obviously had a shower this morning. Jane told us a little bit about herself.
Her husband was working as an attorney, they both went to the gym each morning before her classes at BYU started, she loved spicy food and Chocolate and she has loved fashion ever since her modeling days...oh yes, and Jane did not have kids yet.
I'll be honest... there were a good 30-40 seconds of my brain saying, "Thin, fashionable, theme, colors that match, nothing from Korea on YOUR walls, probably don't even own a scrunchy....I'm going to have to hate you Jane dear." Basically, If this were a scene from Downton Abbey, I would be Edith.
I remember sitting down on the white sofa, directly across from where Jane was seated - and thinking to myself, "Huh, so there really are people who own white couches..." I was not only in the presence a white sofa - I was sitting on one! This was about the time I noticed the half dried fruit loop stuck to the leg of my oh-so-sexy black stretchy pants. Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, I carefully picked and scraped.
|
| actual hideous wall hanging |
It's not easy to look totally casually while dealing with a fruit loop situation like mine. So, to add to that "hey, nothing going on here!" casual sort of demeanor , I smiled and looked else where. I thought if (heaven forbid) Jane were to all of a sudden say,
"Wait, can I just interrupt the scripture for a moment to find out if that is indeed a fruit-loop on your M.C. Hammer pants?!"
...if that completely normal phrase, were to leave her lips, my plan was to hurry and change the subject by complementing her, telling her she had a lovely home. The problem with THAT plan was her home was like something out of Better Homes & Gardens. It was quite lovely.
I spent the entire 5 minutes of my visiting teaching companion reading a few scriptures and giving the message, picking at a green fruit loop and being in awe of all I saw. The room had a theme and a color pallet to match, which carried into every other room and hall in her home. MY home on the other hand, had not only a "messy kids live here" theme with no color pallet whatsoever - it was accented with slight mix of "Yes it's hideous, but that wall hanging from Korea is from my husband's two year mission, and he loves it". Young Mormon Newlywed Wife problem #281.
Almost an hour later my companion and I were buckling up our kids back into the van, headed back home. The conversation between my companion and I all the way back home consisted of sentences like:
- I'm never wearing a scrunchy again.
- Are scrunchies no longer cool?
- I'm joining the gym tomorrow.
- Instead of the gym, lets just bring her super fattening treats each time we visit.
- What colors go with my "To-Tired-To-Care about the Mess" theme?
- I'm signing up to make every single crafty item there is at the next Relief Society Super Saturday.
- She's really cool. Maybe some of her coolness will rub off on us.
- Maybe some of our coolness will rub off on HER! Amen sister!
- I'm never buying Fruit Loops again.
- Go ahead and buy them. Just stop WEARING them!
Before long, Jane was one of my best friends. Her life seemed just about perfect to me but she had trials and insecurities, just like all women do. I didn't look at her and feel intimidated anymore. I looked at her with admiration and she inspired me to loose the rest of the weight I had put on with my last pregnancy. I chopped my hair off , into a super stylish bob. I wanted to cut it for years but was never brave enough to follow through. And, I made a rule that until he had a room in our house for him to use as an office, all items from Korea could only be displayed in the bathroom.
(Fade to black....return to present day....)
As it turns out, Jane had been nervous to meet us too. She had not noticed the fruit loops or my pants because she was staring at our babies. Jane and her husband had been trying to get pregnant since their honeymoon and she was worried that mothers with little children would only hang out with other mothers with little children. Boy, sometimes it's our insecurities that make us our own worst enemy.
It's been about 20 years since my first visit with Jane, and many things have changed. Yes, I felt intimidated when I met my fellow bloggers, but only for a moment. Instead of intimidated I felt impressed, inspired and honored to be included in their group. Now, if I ever feel depressed about my lack of impressive skills in interior design, fashion, cooking, or sewing - I just hop on Pinterest and simply clicking on a recipe or a great DIY idea makes me feel better. You know, it's the thought that counts! I still buy fruit loops but as far as I know I haven't used those darn loops to accessorize my outfits since that day at Jane's house. If you want to be amazed or inspired by these cool women bloggers - my wonderful friends & family - trust me, you don't have to look far. I'm surrounded by them - and so are you. They blog - We PIN - it's a win/win for everyone.
Go ahead, ask me, "So, Simply June....What do you blog about?" I guess my answer is simply this: I blog about anything that makes me happy & share the things I've used in my fight to never be that angry bitter woman again.
Check out some of my favorite Utah bloggers
HERE!
It all started a few months before my third year of marriage. I think by this time the novelty of being a poor young married couple had worn off a bit and by the time I had just given birth to my daughter, I was not only slacking off in the way I looked, but in the basic look of my tiny home. In the past few years, I had replaced expensive designer jeans with what was my daily go-to look - black stretchy pants (as in MC Hammer style) that served me well through two pregnancies and after! And, my fashionable t-shirt of choice was one of the 5 different free T-Shirts from my husband had received from his job at Word Perfect. Add my way-to-long hair that was usually up in a scrunchy and I was one hot mama! But that wasn't all...
I love this! I'm so glad that you posted it so that I could come to your blog!
ReplyDeleteHi Simply June from A Little Help Now and Then. I just found your blog. I so relate to this post. I was searching last night how to be a "better blogger" and was very initimated by all the amazing blogs and very talented women. I turned off the computer and vowed never to blog again because what I had seemed so mediocre. But then I thought of something "Do not wait till you get it perfect because that day may never come." Thanks so much for your honesty and more importantly the link to Downnton Abbey. So exicted!!! Drop by my humble blog sometime if you get a chance
ReplyDeletehttp://alittlehelpnowandthen.blogspot.com/
June, you are my favorite blogger! Not just because of your blog, but because you are such a real person and do so much beyond blogging. I have met bloggers who don't seem to live beyond their blogs or those who portray some sort of perfection in what they do on the blog. You are genuine and I love you for that! Thank you for sharing yourself with others and helping us to know we have a sister out there in this cruel world.
ReplyDeleteso now we know that you're not perfect, whatever happened to 'jane'?
ReplyDeletei love your blog just the way it is!
LOVE! No one is perfect. Remember that! xoxo
ReplyDeleteMy sister-in-law recently posted a link on FB to this particular post on your blog. I'm new-ish to the blogging world (I started a blog a while back but had to take a large break due to having baby #6 and totally needing to adjust to that, lol), and I'm at it again, and this was just the perspective I needed. I often feel less creative in my blogging, but I'm trying to find my place, and how to keep just be me on my blog. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWhen times get tough, isn't it great when you realized you are not alone?! Keep blogging and know there are tons of women out there who will relate to whatever it is you have to say. :) I'm glad that sharing my insecurities help out.
DeleteI just found your blog through MMB. I hope it's okay that I laughed out loud as you were picking at that Cheerio. Sounds like something I would do! And, in fact, my house is also decorated along the "messy kids live here" theme.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post to remind us to be uplifted by the amazing women around us instead of dragging ourselves down because we feel like we don't measure up. Of course we measure up! We only question our worth when we lose focus on the Savior.
I love that you said "We only question our worth when we lose focus on the Savior." because that is so true! Thanks so much for your comment and come back soon!
Delete