Easter Basket.

This past Friday night we took the girls to a glow in the dark Easter Egg Hunt. This year is the first year our girls understand the concept of hunting for candy-filled eggs, so I was excited to take them. Most of the community Easter events are held on Saturdays and since I work every Saturday, I knew this was the only Easter Egg Hunt I could experience with them.

Oh No!

Half way to the event I realized I had forgotten their Easter baskets! I yelled over to BJ who was driving, "Turn the car around, I forgot their baskets!" Looking down at the clock and back at him a few times- we knew if we turned around now, we could potentially miss the Easter Egg Hunt. All of a sudden my mind was flooding with all kinds of horrible thoughts.

Overload.

I started thinking about the what seems likes a million instagram posts I had scrolled through of my friends and their kids and all the Easter-themed days, moments, dinners. Some even had their own personal Easter bunny visit their homes (not really, but seemed like it at the time) Some of them had dyed their rice and pasta to look like dyed eggs, they had their kid's Easter basket custom made with their initials on it and had the whole thing hidden away for the past 3 months.

Reality.

Meanwhile, my reality was that I had just purchased their Easter basket an hour before (while they were in the grocery cart with me) ran home in time to feed them oatmeal for dinner because I didn't prepare anything beforehand, changed their clothes and brushed their hair. Running out the door without their baskets!

Your Lane.

I expressed my feelings of being a horrible mother to BJ; not only had I forgotten their baskets, but this was the only "Easter-y" event I was able to experience with them... the list went on and on! I continued by comparing my reality to other's reality, or what I perceived to be their reality. BJ stopped me in mid sentence and said, "Sarah run in your own lane and be confident in it!"

Off Track.

For a second there, I had gotten a bit off track. In a moment of panic, I allowed insecurity to get the best of me. I am not the mother who makes organic soap in my backyard (I don't even have a backyard) nor am I the mom who has the menu for the week inscribed on a chalk board that I did as a Pinterest project one day! Most days I know that and embrace that, but last Friday I viewed those things as a weakness.

Compare.

Knowing who you are is so important- but knowing who you are not is sometimes equally as important. As people we compare, and it is so easy to subconsciously compare our lives to others. Whether we see it on a social media forum or just by observing people's lives, we sometimes (if you're anything like me) ask questions like, "Am I doing enough with my life?" or, "Am I a thoughtful wife like her?" or, "Why am I not married by now?"You get the picture.

Turn It Around.

In this moment I had to be reminded to run in my lane and to be completely confident in whatever that lane looks like. It's OK to want to do more and be the best mother, sister, wife, friend, brother we can be, but it is not OK to beat ourselves up in the process. If you forget your kid's Easter basket, don't start going down rabbit trails of horrible thoughts. (see what I did there?) Instead, make your husband jump out of the car with the kids at the event, turn your car around and zip on home to pick the baskets up, go back to the Easter Egg Hunt and make it just in time for the kids to hunt for some candy-filled eggs. That's what I did anyways.

Every week I highlight a TRUTH about you, your life, or about a situation you may be facing and then I DARE you to believe it.

Here is this week's TRUTH or DARE.

TRUTH: You are not meant to live anyone else's reality.

DARE: Be confident in that reality, whatever that looks like.