life Archives - Emily A. Clark

What I Actually Want for Mother’s Day

May112018

It’s not a candle. Or a necklace. Or even a really nice bag (although I wouldn’t refuse it). Here’s a short list of a what I actually want for Mother’s Day:

A couple of uninterrupted hours to read, without stopping after every other paragraph.

And if that happens, to be able to spontaneously fall asleep and stay that way until I wake up on my own.

A day where not one conversation directed at me begins with the words “Can you. . . ?” or “Can I . . . ?” (I don’t think it’s humanly possible, but just throwing it out there.)

For my teenage boy to kiss me.

To eat an entire meal without someone calling for bathroom “assistance.”

And for dessert, a large Wendy’s Frosty (chocolate, not vanilla).

To not set foot in the kitchen all day long, but to return the next day to a sparkling clean space.

To feel a lot of sweet little arms hugging my neck.

For all of my people to be happy, happy, happy!

To watch consecutive episodes of Jeopardy and Judge Judy without pausing and/or rewinding continuously throughout. (Yes, I know I sound 83.)

What do you really want for Mother’s Day?

PS– Honestly, I can’t think of Mother’s Day gifts without thinking of The Middle and the time Frankie got a yellow, inflatable foot bath. (Please tell me you watch and are as sad as we are about the soon approaching end.)

PPS– A few other posts on motherhood you might enjoy:

Photoshopping Crumbs (and Other Truths)

Is It Out of Style to Be Happy?

What’s Saving Me Right Now

Instagram Observations

Feb282018

It wasn’t necessarily an intentional decision, but I’ve pulled back from Instagram lately and the space has made me think about why I really use it in the first place. For blog purposes, it’s my favorite social media by far. I love creating and posting pretty pictures of our house. (Notice I say “creating” because rarely do those shots occur naturally without first kicking toys or shoes out of the way.) It’s also so much easier to create great looking shots when they’re contained in a small square (no high-resolution or professional camera equipment required).

But from the position of an observer, I’m loving it less and less. I feel like the more I scroll, everything starting to look more the same. And Instagram stories. . . . where do I begin? Do you love them or hate them? I rarely speak on mine and there’s a good reason behind that. Sometimes it’s just better to enjoy a person through their writing voice or photos; know what I mean? While there are a lot of feeds I enjoy following, there are only a handful of IG’ers I actually watch on stories. I love to see a glimpse or two of what’s going on in someone’s day or something fun they’ve discovered or even their kids (sometimes) doing something adorable. (I especially love the laughing babies.) But, some of these “stories” have become full-on reality shows and I can’t/don’t want to keep up. If you have 82 dashes (stories) at the top of your frame, be assured I’m moving on to the next person. . .

A few other funny/interesting things I’ve observed lately as I’ve scrolled through Instagram:

–Date nights. Every week. Does this really happen? (If so, good for you.) When we do manage to make it out of the house, I’m never in heels and we almost always go out to eat, followed by a Target run for paper towels or something to that effect. Maybe this only reflects poorly on us, but I just don’t buy it.

-“Not what I’m doing right now” photos. I admit I’m occasionally guilty of this, too, but I always feel like a dweeb when I do it. These are the perfect life photos followed by a caption that goes something like “Wishing I was wearing this sassy red dress out on the town but I’m actually watching Netflix in my PJ’s.” Okay. . . Aren’t these a direct contradiction to the idea of “Insta”? (I’ve never actually used that particular caption, by the way.)

-Pronouncing the “g” on -ing words. No. No. NO! This one pertains specifically to IG stories. Maybe it’s just me but I swear I’ve noticed lots of people pronouncing the silent g on the end of -ing words. Laughing becomes laughing-guh, jogging becomes jogging-guh, loving becomes loving-guh. Have you noticed this, too? I swear I googled it to make sure I hadn’t been saying this wrong all of my life, but I’m happy to report that the g is, in fact, still silent.

-Animal filters (also on IG stories). WHY? Should I be doing this? If you’re telling me about your favorite paint color or your latest blog post, I feel like I need to see your real face. But maybe I’m in the minority here. . .

-People don’t love pictures of your/my kids. I get it. A guaranteed way to loose a handful of followers quickly is to post photos of my family. I’m okay with that and still do it occasionally. More power to you all that have a large following and do it all the time anyway. I do have a private account for very few friends and family where I can happily post 24 pictures of my kids at one time and not one of nine followers unfollows. These are the photos I look at when I just want to feel happy. You know, the real stuff of life.

How’s Instagram for you these days? A friend and I recently had a conversation about all of this and I thought it would be fun to share here, too. I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. . . Love it, hate it, or both?

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Monday Thoughts. . .

Sep182017

In case you haven’t noticed, things have slowed down a bit on the blog lately. I’m about to hit the eight-year mark and looking back, I can’t believe I’ve managed to do this as consistently as I have for so many years. Maybe it’s turning forty or the fact that my kids are needier now than when they were babies (nobody tells you that part about motherhood) but I can definitely feel some internal changes happening.

Last week, I worked on a post in small five-minute increments until about Wednesday when I finally just gave up and gave myself permission to take the week off without fretting over it. I’ve rarely done that since starting this site and it was good. In fact, I think I’ll do more of it. Between dentist and orthodontist appointments, helping with late-night homework (ask me the greatest common factor of any numbers!), and searching for a lost school-issued laptop (don’t ask me about that), I took some time to get my own house in order instead of just writing about it. It was strangely freeing and I remembered how much I love just piddling in my own space for my own enjoyment. That’s why I started a blog about decorating in the first place.

Over the weekend, we hosted a ton of church friends and their (young) kids. I spent most of the week beforehand cleaning dirty corners and dusting forgotten places. But again, another reminder of how much I love working on our house for actual people and not just for a staged photo. Real life is the best, isn’t it?

And then there’s social media. As entertaining as it can be at times, it honestly just sucks the life out of me other times. I’m sure that’s not the proper thing to say for potential sponsorships, etc. But seriously, if I spent the majority of my day looking at what people are posting and what other people have to say about it, I could easily end up thinking the world is a very angry place. There are still some happy people out there, right? Right?! They probably just aren’t spending all of their time with their heads down in Facebook or on Instagram.

So, no, I’m not going anywhere. I’m just breathing a little more; putting less pressure on myself where there really shouldn’t be any. And, I’m realizing more and more that driving and picking up kids for hours each day, staying up late to study vocabulary words and cleaning my kitchen counter off four times a day is actually productive in the long run.

What are you doing to give yourself a little breathing room?

Hope you all have a good week. Tomorrow, I’m touring this year’s Southern Living idea house in Bald Head Island, NC, and will be sharing pictures on Instagram, if you’d like to follow along.

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