Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Show Your Real: Melissa

When Melissa of Buffy Sunshine found the Show Your Real series, and emailed me saying she wanted to contribute, I was thrilled to hear someone liked what we're building here enough to want to be a part of it!   Melissa is a self-described "art loving, organic-eating hot mess of a pastor's wife." She has four kids who  may just be the cutest little southern hipsters I've ever seen. I'm so happy to have her joining the series today. And if you're a fan like Melissa, send me an email..I'd love to have you share your real!
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Hello! I am thrilled to contribute to all the realness that's happening in this little corner of the blog world. I'm always fascinated to learn that seemingly well put together friends, bloggers, shop owners etc, are real people with frustrations and guilt and unwashed dishes. It helps me. It encourages me. It challenges me.


I have four children, ages 8, 7, 5 and 1. They are full of energy and imagination and they change clothes four or five times a day. We take them on camping trips, feed them organic food, don't let them watch much t.v. and always have a messy art project going on.


On a typical day, I wake up around 7am and read two chapters of the Bible. Sometimes I have time to pray or scribble something in a journal before the kids wake up, but most days they are all in my lap and I am literally holding the Bible above all of their heads so I can soak in the last few words before we start the day. My husband makes me coffee every morning and we all sit down for breakfast together before he leaves for the day. Our mornings are very scheduled... the rest of the day is a tornado of outdoor activities, practices and lessons, laundry, dinner and projects.


After the kids go to bed, I catch up on emails and blogging. I recently started an online magazine called Sunshine Magazine (first issue up September 1, 2013) so I spend a lot of time writing articles, conducting interviews and recruiting advertisers.


In all realness, I am almost always mentally struggling to appear happy and content without seeming "fake." I get lots of emails and blog comments that say, "do you ever have a bad day?" The answer is YES! I have lots of bad moments (and hours and days and weeks). I would rather paint something than wash dishes. I have wrinkles around my eyes and grey hairs. Sometimes I get to Target and notice that one of my kids forgot to wear shoes. I am truly a "real" hot mess of a Pastor's wife with four children who survives each day on large amounts of God's grace and strong coffee.

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Show Your Real is a bi-weekly series of guest posts centered around the concept of authenticity. The goal is to encourage each other to expose the reality of our lives- good and bad- and to foster a sense of community that goes beyond the often suface-cy interactions of social media. We invite all of you to participate! Please comment, link, and hashtag to spread the showyourreal love. If you would like to contribute a guest post in this series, please email me! 

    4 comments :

    1. Melissa I loved this....keeping up with you on facebook I always wonder how you manage bc you always have something fun going on with the kids it seems....I can completely relate to everything you just said lol...even the shoes ;)- I often think I need to know your secret when I see pics...now I am curious about your magazine! La'Shea

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    2. It was great hearing about your real, Melissa! I can totally relate to getting to Target and realizing one of my kids doesn't quite look put together, be it a missing shoe, a pizza sauce face, or hair that doesn't quite look combed!

      I think we've all been there!

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    3. From one hot mess of a pastor's wife to another...this was great!

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    4. its so nice to hear i'm not the only hot mess of a mama who totally forgets to make sure each child is wearing shoes before we head out of the house.. :)

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