Monday, April 13, 2015

Fabulous

I recently read an article titled, “Fabulous or Ordinary?”  This particular article got me thinking so much about my own life.

Am I fabulous or am I ordinary?

WARNING: the word fabulous may be overused in this post so if you are bothered by fabulousness, proceed with caution.

There are so many women that you read about now days that are doing fabulous things.

I often compare myself to other women.  I say to myself(in my head, of course), “Look at all they are doing, I could never do that, I am not good enough, or smart enough, or pretty enough.  I am not fabulous.”

When I start self-loathing to myself in my head, then I repeat to myself 3 times(once again, in my head):

“You is kind, you is smart, you is important.” ;)

I look up to all kinds of women.  I wish I could be like all kinds of women.

There are women out there who have turned their blogs into successful money making ventures. (sometimes I think my husband wishes I could or would do that; then he could quit his job. Maybe.)

There are women who are doing amazing service projects that are so big that my head spins sometimes thinking about it.  I only wish I was that cool.

There are women who are changing the world by helping people in other countries do amazing things.

There are women who are taking on new scary business ventures and are becoming very successful at it.

There are women who write books, who write songs, who sing songs, and all these leave us thinking about something. Words and music can change us.  These women change us.

There are amazing… well you get my point.

I am not one of those fabulous, famous, writing, changing the world women.

So I guess you could say I often feel as if I am just ordinary.

I wanted to know what my kids thought about being fabulous.

Do they think of me as one of those fabulous people?

I asked all four of them separately:

What makes me fabulous?

Tess said: “When you wear your sunglasses you are fabulous.”

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Jex said: “All of your sunglasses make you fabulous.” (remember I asked them separately, oh, and I only own 3 pair of cheap sunglasses)

Stella said: “Your long hair makes you fabulous.”

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Isaac said: “Your green eyes make you fabulous.”

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I was so shocked by all their answers.  I didn’t expect them to have answers that were only about my appearance. 

It just proved to me that my kids find the word fabulous to describe one’s appearance and how we look.

So when we say that a person is fabulous, what does that really mean?

To my kids it means; you can be fabulous with just a $10 pair of sunglasses.

Maybe instead of saying that a person is fabulous, I should say that a person does fabulous things.

So then I rephrased my question and asked them one more time individually.

I asked, “ What does mommy do that makes her fabulous?”

Jex said: “You are a fabulous housekeeper.”

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Tess said: “You are fabulous when you snuggle with me.”

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Stella said: “When you run with me, you are fabulous.”(no running picture, sorry)

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(so I found 2 holiday pics)

Isaac said: “When you plan all the fun holiday activities you are fabulous.”

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It made me think about how we perceive fabulousness.

To my kids, the simple things I do make me fabulous.

Like making birthday cakes, might make me fabulous?

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or braiding my girls hair?

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or reading to my kids?

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or listening on a bad day?

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I don’t know? it’s all in the eye of the beholder.

What do we behold in others that we perceive as fabulousness?

In return, what do others see in you that makes you equally as fabulous?

It made me realize that we are all fabulous.  We are all fabulous in someone’s eyes.

I want nothing more than to be a fabulous mother to my kids.

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I am, however, not a fabulous pregnant person.  We can’t be fabulous at everything.  We can’t expect to be. We must learn to celebrate other’s successes, and then in turn celebrate our own.

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We all do fabulous things. We can’t be fabulous at everything. There is always someone out there who believes what we do for them is fabulous.

Those women who are changing nations, who work full-time and are still full-time mothers, the women who write novels, and take on big challenges like loosing weight and succeed.  I see you as fabulous. 

The neighbor whose yard always looks awesome, or the woman at church whose children always look so put together, and even better the mom who gets her family to church on time.  I find you fabulous.

The store clerk who always wears a smile, or the nurse who calms my fears at the doctor, and the woman who seemed uber frustrated at the store today because you had all 4 kids with you; and for a moment it got crazy, I think you are fabulous.  (I used to be that woman.)

But aren’t we all?  We are all fabulous. No one person is ordinary.  We were all created by a loving father, in a miraculous and amazing way; so there is no way we can be ordinary.

You may feel ordinary, but you’re not.

Just ask someone who loves you. 

Ask them what you do that makes you fabulous.

You will find that you are fabulous in someone’s eyes.

Post-edit:  I wrote most of this post about 12 days ago.  I had hoped to get it posted sooner, but I got super busy with life and actually haven’t opened my computer since then.  I hope to share soon what is making me busy and taking me away from this place I love to be.   However, something “fabulous” happened to me today and I just had to share it.  It seems so fitting with this post.

I was out shopping at our local Sam’s Club today, and a women stopped me.  She said, “I just have to ask, do you write a blog?” I replied, “Yes.” She responded back, “I just love your blog…..” and then she preceded to tell me all the things she loved about it.  All the fabulous things she admired, and even some projects she has done that she found here.  I just had to ask her, if she started reading it before I moved here or after and she replied, “before.”  This made my heart happy.  This means that this sweet girl has been reading my blog for quite sometime.  This sweet girl, made me feel fabulous.  I am not a famous fabulous blogger who is well-known, and gets stopped all the time.  It is so nice, however, when someone does take the time to stop, and tell you they admire something about your doing. 

So… Thank you sweet, and adorable, and fabulous, gal who stopped me in Sam’s today.  You touched me deeply, on a day I needed it.

Before I walked away, I thanked her for stopping to tell me.  This is a good reminder that we should all take the time to tell others that they are fabulous.  It is important to remind them that the things they do are fabulous. 

This sweet woman did that, right before we parted ways, she said, “don’t stop blogging, you are reaching people and doing great things; I just wanted you to know that.”

Today, I am thankful for this blog, my children, and that sweet beautiful woman who reminded me that I am fabulous; in my own way.

In a world of comparison, especially among women, it is nice to know that we are all fabulous in our own little way.

Tell someone today just how fabulous they are.

 

8 comments:

Pam said...

Great thoughts thanks for sharing :) you are fabulous!

Nichole Morris said...

I have been reading your blog for over a year, and I have always referred to you as "fabulous, creative, loving, tender and kind" and today as I read this post, with happy tears in my eyes, I still think the same exact way about you. Everyone involved in your life, physically, emotionally or through this blog is special and so excited to be apart of your daily life. Thank you for all you do, you may not know it, but you are a huge support for many women in this world. Thank you! By the way, you are fabulous!

Elizabeth said...

You are fabulous! Thank you for this post! I love your blog, have learned a lot of great ideas from it myself, and always come looking on it when I want a new cute idea for my house. I have to tell you though, you touched me today when you said that there are women that are fabulous that work full time and are still full time mothers. It touched my heart to hear you say that, because I am a working full time mother, and it is easily the hardest thing I've ever done in my entire life. It was so sweet to read that you still count us working moms as full time moms, because we are. I think you're fabulous, I love your blog for SO MANY reasons, and it meant a lot to hear you say all of the reasons that all of us different types of women are fabulous. I'm so glad that I stopped by your blog today, I needed it.

Val said...

Such an inspiring post... I wish I had been following your blog sooner. I really admire you and am so grateful for your friendship. I love everything you said and completely agree. I think we all feel so inadequate because we forget about our amazing moments. We all have amazing moments where we shine but for some reason they are so easy to forget. I love how you mentioned telling others when you think they are fabulous. Even remembering to tell others when you think they are awesome makes you amazing.... I love the cute girl who stopped you at sams. Sometimes i am busy or not feeling like chatting but when I take the time to tell others how awesome they are its amazing how you instantly feel better about yourself and you instantly feel a little more fabulous. Thanks for being my friend and inspiring me to be a better person and giving me advice about my new blog too :) ! I am looking forward to reading your past posts and posts yet to come.

Kim Crreasy said...

Andrea, After reading this post, I just had to let you know about my grown daughter who has followed your blog and on Pinterest. When you started following her on Pinterest, she was beside herself. Every time you pin one of her pins, she texts and is giddy. Something about you is fabulous....much more than you think:) .

Leslie Posey said...

I'm glad that we lived close for 2yrs and i got to hang out with you and learn crafty things from you and love your sweet children and have girls night often!! I think we take different things from different people. You are a fabulous mom and you have fabulous children that I instantly loved! People tend to be drawn to positive, up-to-date people. .you are one of those! I wish you lived closer again so I could continue to love on my Tessa..I have another baby for her to love on!! :-) keep up the good work. .you are FABULOUS! !

Leslie Posey said...

Up-beat...not up to date! Lol

julie said...

The thing about the 'ordinary' is that it can be turned into the 'extraordinary', which is undoubtably what you are. Your blog posts are warm, soul searching, interesting, full of creative ideas and always inspirational.
Your blog is fabulous because it's written by a fabulous woman who also thinks that her readers are fabulous too!
Thank you for a fabulous post 😊👍 X

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