The lies we post

I hear it all the time when people hear of my divorce or what happened behind closed doors at home.  "I had no idea.  I always thought you were the perfect family."  How many times have you yourself been surprised to hear that someone you know is divorcing, in trouble for something with the law, having medical issues, having thoughts of depression, etc...  Why are we so surprised to hear that people aren't sharing the darker sides of themselves, their  lives, on social media?  It takes incredible bravery to admit things aren't perfect.  People have been "keeping up with the Joneses" for a long time.  Why would social media be any different?  So let's take a minute and talk about what we put on social media.

I like to put jokes and memes on social media.  I am constantly looking for humor in what goes on in my life.  I also will literally go looking for a meme to fit a current situation.  One, because if there is a meme it means lots of people know what I'm talking about and two, because I like to make light of crappy situations.   I also post more negative/truthful things than most but even I try to keep it light, positive and save the deeper stuff for my blog.  That way people can choose to read it or not and keep their newsfeed free from the negativity.  But let's see behind the scenes.

Looking back over my recent posts, I've posted about Libby's prom, how much I love my horses, winning a belt buckle, shared our house for sale, going to the movies and the Kentucky Derby.  The closest to negative I got was complaining about removing the wallpaper in the kitchen, but even that I tried to make into a joke.   Anyone reading my newsfeed would think everything was going along smashingly and we were all one big happy family.

But there is always more to the story and more going on than our Facebook newsfeed, Snapchat story or Instagram pics are going to tell you.  You want reality?  I've got a dose of reality for you.  While I'm keeping it positive and posting funny memes...

1.  I slept approximately 4 hours all weekend due to anxiety related issues, including nightmares about ex's that had me waking up in a sweat.

2.  I've had a couple really frustrating rides on one of our equines.

3.  I've been so frustrated with the oldest child, her procrastination and her "senioritis" that I have threatened, complained and given ultimatums more in the last two months, than the last 10 years.

4.  I am worried about being ready for the graduation party at our house as we haven't purchased one thing yet and she STILL hasn't sent out invites.

5.  We cannot seem to sell our house.  Lots of lookers, one person wanted to make an offer but couldn't get financing.  We only have another month and our purchase agreement is void and with it our dream of living in the country.

6.  I arrived at a track meet on Saturday in time to be told, by my youngest, that it was my fault she missed the last height in pole vault because I am unlucky and that my hair looked stupid and I should change it.

7.  I went to feed hay to discover that two of the giant square bales we just bought for $60 a piece are completely mold all the way through. 

8.  Our lawnmower needed a pile of work and cost nearly $500 to fix.

9.  My car makes a fun new noise (or two).

10.  Sophie is having issues with someone harassing her and we are running out of polite options to cope with it.

11.  In order to get our house sold I had the bright idea to remove the wallpaper everyone seemed to find so offensive.  Unfortunately the upper layer was apparently put on with super glue and a project that should have taken a few hours took the better part of 3 days.

12.  My dad went to paint our exterior doors and discovered that one needed replacing.  So we spent even more money on a house we hope to not be living at in two months.

13.  The Suburban and trailer also needed work and cost more $$$ we didn't want to spend. 

But through it all, we have each other.  We have our health, the love of so many of our family and friends and more blessings than I can count here.  So we try not to focus on the negative and try to see the big picture.  The big picture is that we have all that we need when we look at the people in our lives.  The rest is all just stuff and some roadblocks that can only serve to make us stronger.   So I'm going to keep blogging about the positive and I'm not going to forget that we all have our struggles that we are going through, even those who keep the struggles off their social media.  We are all in this together.