The Good, Bad and Ugly

This morning I was planning on posting a few photos of our life over the past couple days: time spent with Nutter, a spontaneous date-night at home with homemade calzones, pictures of magazines I've been loving lately.

But then earlier this week I started feeling the pressure. The pressure to do everything perfectly: to perform well at my job, to keep the house clean, the laundry done, to put good meals on the table, to be a happy, joyful spouse every minute of the day. And although I know it's not realistic to always be every single one of those things, I lost a little perspective and was feeling down when comparing myself to others on the blogosphere.

I'm not sure what my life looks like to those reading E&C, but I try hard to keep it real. Joe and I have a wonderful, happy life, but it's not all ski trips, spontaneous date nights and cuddling on the couch. There's laundry, dirty dishes and dust bunnies underneath the bed that have been there too long. A junk drawer and a messy closet at times. And while I don't usually post the 'behind the scenes' photos (how many photos do you really want to see of my laundry pile?), I thought it would be fun to show how easily we bloggers can create the illusion of 'perfect' by being selective with what we show.

Here are the more beautiful moments...

{Looking through magazines, both old and new, for inspiration for upcoming work projects.}

{Making homemade calzones with leftover marinara sauce and homemade whole wheat pizza dough.}

{Fresh asparagus roasted in olive oil to go with our dinner.}

{Healthy whole wheat pizookies to end the meal with something sweet.}

{And the cutest little dog you'll ever see, waiting for dinner to be done so she can beg for food.}

{The finished product!}

And the less than glamorous parts of life...

{Still working on getting our ski stuff cleaned from this past weekend!}

{And more laundry that needs to be put away asap.}

{A bag of dry cleaning that I've been meaning to get to the cleaners for over two months and shoes that never seem to have a good place to rest.}

{Dust bunnies that always hide underneath our shelf/wine rack in the hallway.}

So that's me, on a Friday, keeping it honest. Now, it's your turn! Tell me, do you ever read blogs and feel the pressure to have it all together?

Madison