A Dose Of Reality

On Thursday night I attended a Relief Society training meeting for all of the Relief Society presidencies in the stake.  I was, at best, a little worked up/frustrated/overwhelmed when I got there.  Let me tell you why...

Richard had come home from work the night before with the stomach flu.  He proceeded to spend the rest of the night either in the bathroom or on the floor by the bathroom, pretty picture, I know.  That left me with the kids, dinner, and bedtime all by myself.  I did not fault Richard for this one bit, because he would have absolutely done the same for me.  The next morning brought me two incredibly whiny children while Richard continue to lay in bed.  Again, I can't blame him, he hardly slept the night before.  The day went on, I had a dentist appointment late in the afternoon, got home at 5:30 and proceeded to pull together a dinner and have the kids ready for bed so I could walk out of the door by 6:45.  Richard, at 3:30, had finally dragged himself out of our bedroom, but was still pretty wiped out from his last 24 hours.  Around 6:15 Bridget fell into a complete meltdown.  This has become something that we experience about eight times a day.  Finally, at 6:50 I walked out the door with Bridget screaming, Marshall jumping around, and Richard trying to muster enough energy to put them both to bed.

I walked into the meeting just a few minutes late and found a seat next to my dear friend, Anna.  After the song and prayer, the new stake Relief Society President asked us to go around the room and introduce ourselves and tell a little bit about us.  After listening to about five women say things like:

*I love to exercise

*I love to craft

*I love to do yoga

*I love to quilt

*I have four kids and they are my life

*I love my 11 month old daughter and we always have so much fun together

*I have two darling children; they are my world

I was about ready to pull my hair out.  I turned to Anna and said these are all lies.  Can you tell I was in a bad mood?!

Well, fortunately I was in the last half of people to go, so in between me and the first few women were some "seasoned" women who weren't talking in perky voices about their darling family of five.

I had not given any thought to what I was going to say before I stood up; instead I had been brooding over these perfect women, wives, and mothers.  When my turn finally came around, I stood up and said, "I like to run, or at least I like the challenge of it.  I am learning to read (then realizing this made me sound illiterate I said), actually I am learning to like to read more.  I keep up my blog as the only form of a journal for my entire family.  I have two children, the youngest of which is driving me crazy and I am looking to adopt her out.  If any of you want a 19 month old girl who screams most of the day, please let me know."  The room erupted into laughter, I sat down, and Anna complemented me on my venting session.  :)

I understand that when we are meeting people for the first time, or presenting ourselves in any social situation that we generally want to display our best selves, but man oh man, it was too much for me on Thursday night.