Organic

I have been noticing that quite a few of the blogs that I browse, women who are stay at home moms include some of the following topics:
1. making food from scratch
2. home schooling
3. growing and making own home foods/materials
4. lifting every thought up in prayer -- this is hugely important and will continue to strive for this always!
5. using cloth diapers

I am here to tell you that I:
1. make food from a box because I HATE to cook and bake
2. Wouldn't home school if you paid me...I don't have any patience to do that (I'm also a public school teacher and not sure if I even believe in home schooling)
3. look at a plant and it dies - and why would I make my own materials when I can but them at Target
4. frequently I forget to pray

Sometimes I read the blogs of people who are making pasta from scratch using whole grains while pulling their tomatoes from the garden to make the sauce. How do these women have the time and energy to accomplish these things? How do they just not run to Target to quickly buy household items and food? Am I failing as a wife and mother because I LOVE to eat the most processed food out there...Velveeta cheese block? Am I destroying the future for my daughter because I can hardly stand the smell of rice cereal poop and would rather throw the diaper out never to be seen again because if I see (or smell) that nasty diaper again, I will literally puke? Will my husband become an obese crippled man because I fed him green beans from a can rather than growing, harvesting and canning the beans myself? And foremost, how do these women find time to accomplish all of these organic, environmentally sound habits?!?!?!!? I can barely keep the house clean as it is.

Then I think to myself, it is the responsibility of each woman to decide what is best for her family. Each family has priorities and goals for their family that are God-inspired if the family is listening to God. I do have a recycling bin in which I recycle all the things I can think to put in there...plastic, glass, aluminum, etc. But if growing my own vegetables would mean that our family would starve, then I will buy the locally grown from the grocery store. If home schooling my child would mean that I might sell my child to the Gypsies (who are real by the way, they live in North Augusta, SC) then I will send my daughter to public school. If cooking from scratch means that Matthew would come home each day to a sobbing wife who already burns at least one meal per week, then we will eat meals from a box. I commend women whose gifts include gardening and baking and going all natural. However, these are not my gifts.

I am so glad that I live in a Christian community where each of our gifts can be celebrated and each person encouraged for who they are and how they best glorify God. I will let go of these guilty thoughts and be secure in the knowledge that God leads our home as well as the homes' of the friends who blog about and share what I think are amazing skills. This mommy eats Chick-Fil-A and Burger King. This mommy while nursing has about one soda per day. This mommy will love God with all her heart and celebrate the love of all the mommies who do their best for their children.