Lonely Caterpillar
 

practically perfect

I am an iron on mum. I’m a rubbish cook, I’ m not very good at crafts and don’t get me started on my baking ability (even the dog wont eat it).

When it comes to the beginning of a new school term I go straight to eBay order iron on labels with pretty pictures and colours and proceed to iron them onto my kids uniforms. In four years iv never had to redo any of these and my kids think its great they get a picture on their name label. Its really strange though, how funny parents and teachers can be about these things.

I am a massive Disney fan, I love all things Disney, in my spare time (and my time when I should be doing other things), I daydream about Disney trips, plan Disney trips, budget for Disney trips and sometimes watch Disney films or spend my time on Facebook Disney forums. Its an addiction I’m happy to live with an unwilling to change.

I grew up with Disney and one of my favourite films was and is Mary Poppins, we watched it as a family many times and my granddad always said to my mum she was ‘practically perfect in every way’ . I loved that and I also think my mum is pretty awesome, although iv yet to see her fly using an umbrella but maybe she’s saving that for the grandkids. I love in the film that life is a bit rubbish, in fly’s this awesome nanny, makes everyone see what’s important in life and then off she pops to save another family. Having watched saving Mr Banks I love Mary Poppins even more because lets face it we all know life isn’t fairy-tale and happy endings and to see the reality behind Mary Poppins adds depth to the story.

I am no Mary Poppins, I’m not a Mrs Banks, I don’t really fit into that idealistic home . I’m probably a very frazzled animal from the Muppets type character most days, who shouts and screams and gets far more reaction making silly noises than singing pretty songs. A spoonful of sugar would be a disaster in our house, both kids hate medicine and more ends up on the walls than in anyone’s mouths and increased levels of sugar would mean even more noise and hyperactivity. As much as I love Mary Poppins (and dream of her flying to our home one day), our house probably is a little bit more like lilo and stitch.

The thing with being practically perfect is that its the practically that makes life fun, not the perfect. Its the random things we do, with my mum and my granddad the things I loved most where the things that made our family most weird. Bank surfing (cardboard and a grass hill), building a sand boat and waiting for the tide to come in and flood it, dancing in puddles in the rain, anywhere and everywhere, running and diving into the pile of teddy’s in the Disney store (probs why they don’t have these any more).

The thing is, I love Disney, but I don’t live in a fairy-tale, I love my kids but I don’t need to learn to sew, I’m happy but I don’t need to sing songs with animals following me down the road.

It might not be all pretty and sometimes its really hard but life is still practically perfect.