True confessions

I live under the delusion that anyone who knows me doesn't know this about me so work with me here and at least gasp a little when you read my next sentence...

I am a perfectionist. I want to be the perfect wife, perfect mother, perfect daughter, perfect homemaker, perfect homeschooler, and on and on it goes.

So why am I finally bursting my own bubble of delusion to let you in on this little "secret?" Is it cathartic confession of the blatantly obvious I'm trying to hide? Is it because I needed something to blog about? Or is it because I'm reading a really good book by another perfectionist woman who wants to be a perfect mother as well and yet has learned to surrender her life to the Lord instead of trying to shape it all herself.

If you guessed all of the above, you are probably right.

Blue Like Play Dough: The Shape of Motherhood in the Grip of God by Tricia Goyer is one of the best books I have read in a long time. She is transparent, funny, and encouraging. She is also someone I, and probably, every other mother, can relate to.

From the back cover, "Sure, her life is messy and beset by doubts. But God keeps showing up in the most unlikely places - in a bowl of carrot soup, the umpteenth reading of Goodnight Moon, a woe-is-me teen drama or play dough in the hands of a child."

The chapters are short, perfect for a busy mother, but jam packed with pearls of wisdom, adorned with stories of motherhood that touch the heart and make you laugh, or cry.

In case you haven't guessed, I highly recommend it.