First off, a message to my mother:

Mom, IG stands for Instagram. It’s an app that you can have on your phone. Well, not YOUR phone because your phone does that fancy flipping open thing. Anyway, it’s an app where you post pictures and captions. It’s kind of like Facebook, but without the politics. You can pick people that you want to ‘follow’. That means that you will see pictures from those people when you open the app. Also, you can have a private IG account, like me. Or you can have a public one where anyone can see your photos. I like to approve people who see my photos. Why? Well, because some people are weird. I don’t like weird. Love your guts, Nan!

Instagram is kind of a big deal for me because that’s where I post silly-not-at-all-perfect pictures of our life. I love all of the people that I’ve gotten to know through IG and have such fun browsing their feeds. I’m not SUPER into it as far as wanting to have a lot of followers. I understand that many people are, however, because they use it for business. Me? I use it for making Chatbooks. The girls LOVE looking through our books and it’s a really good way to ‘scrapbook’ for lazy scrapbookers like me. Is anyone else here a Project Life drop out?

Anyway, Instagram is such fun for me and getting the books through the mail without even having to think about it is a huge bonus.

So. Why don’t I follow pretty IG feeds?

(and this is no offense to those who I follow and are now thinking they DON’T have pretty feeds…you do! Just in a different way!)

First off, it’s so easy to get sucked into the world of social media. Pop open your phone or laptop and before you know it you’ve wasted 27 minutes looking at animal videos and Joe Biden memes (I don’t care who you are those are funny). When I see *pretty* pictures on IG, or perfectly put together houses, I’ll start wondering how I can do that.

What kind of lighting is that? Where’d that quilt come from? Why is their kitchen ALWAYS CLEAN? Where’d they take that picture? How’d they get those drapes to match that rug so perfectly?

What happens next? Then I start doubting myself. I start THINKING that where I live and what I photograph isn’t as good. I start sorting through my file of unedited images in search of that PERFECT image that I MUST have forgotten about. Oh…it’s not there…well, I suck. Let me try and recreate what that photographer did…with the lighting, or the composition, or the sweet little feet out from under that blanket. Ugh…doesn’t look the same. Yep. I suck.

You know what? Maybe I’ll just change my shooting style altogether. Yep. That’s what I’ll do. Let me buy a couple of actions and whip ’em on some images that I have. Eh…you know what? I’ll just get rid of all of this furniture in the living room and start over. That will help.

Yeah. I suck.

Now I’m wondering what I’m doing with my life. Why do I even try? Failure. I’m a total failure. Why do I even have a camera on this phone? Why do I even have a camera, period? I’m just lucky I was able to land a man and get married. Why doesn’t the light look that way next to MY toilet? Good grief the lighting in this bathroom is terrible. That must be the reason my hair doesn’t look like that mom’s on IG. Why don’t I live by the beach? Yep, the lighting at the beach is so much better. Gah, why don’t I have a couch like that to put my families rear ends on? Forget it all. I’ll just take a nap and then I’ll sell everything on Craigslist.

See? That’s the black hole you drop into when you dabble in some pretty IG feeds. One day you’re checking out pretty house feeds. The next day you’re down in a ditch and covered in House Beautiful magazines. Things go south quickly. I’m just saying. So you know what I did? I unfollowed them. EVERY LAST GORGEOUS ONE. Because frankly? I don’t have the time. And Frankly Number Two? I DON’T EVEN CARE TO MAKE THE TIME. And Frankly Number Three? I DO have a house that’s perfect for us and kids that are cute and say funny things. And Frankly Number Four? I like the people that I follow. I genuinely LIKE them. I consider them my friends and I enjoy reading their stories, watching their kids grow up, and sharing life together. I want to see their REAL life. The part where they are in Costco and their 3 year old isn’t wearing pants. Or their dog is hanging his head out of the car window while wearing a ski cap. I don’t care if your kitchen is clean…if your bedding matches the flowers on your end table (that you made yourself or some crap like that)…if your toddler sleeps ever-so-perfectly next to the dog EVERY.FLIPPING.DAY (that’s posed, so you know….POSED I SAY!). Show me what’s real and let’s all feel good about our journey and our sweet little lives.

And here’s a picture of Josie as she tore through the baby wipes. (this day was wipes, the day before it was Kleenex. Another day it was toilet paper. Yet another day? Coffee filters. And my favorite was this morning….the panty drawer in my closet.) She doesn’t dress like she flopped out of the *whatever catalog is cool and preppy*. She doesn’t snuggle down and nap all perfectly while cuddling a matching dolly. She tried to nap on Max and it just didn’t work out…plus I missed the picture so there. This is us. Regular Josie on a Regular Day in our Regular But Perfect For Us House.

I’m going to live this amazing life. Post my lil’ pictures, get my Chatbooks and not look at perfect IG feeds and think their grass is greener. Because you know what? My grass looks pretty dang good. And? I married a horticulturist so if it ain’t green enough? He knows how to fix it.