That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

So, this is definitely a lesson I learned in life at a very young age, but I was ever-so-kindly reminded of it last month in the midst of the holiday festivities. I, personally, blame it on Pinterest. Yes, I agree that Pinterest is a wonderful time-filler and the ultimate procrastination tool. Yes, I agree that Pinterest is a great way to get DIY ideas and projects, twenty-minute work-out plans that you are not going to try at all but make you feel like you are at least motivating yourself, terribly fabulous baby clothes and outfits that your nonexistent child will absolutely own and strut, and ways to turn a simple object/household item into a Michelangelo wonder. However, for girls like me, it gives us false hope. It tells us we can be Elle Woods when in all reality we are Vivian Kensington just refilling the coffee. Yep, good old Pinterest jaded my life-lesson mindset that I obtained many years back and told me that I could create this pretty....

..... I should have known this was a disaster waiting to happen from the get-go. For starters, I was making this for our annual Christmas party. This is the same Christmas party that, two years ago, I took a store-bought caramel cake to(cut me some slack, I was in a hurry and was a Sophomore in college: failed attempts at cooking weren't even attempted at this point). This aforementioned caramel cake, sat rather low in its container which limited the human eye to viewing only the brown icing and not taking in the dimensions of the cake itself, and was mistaken for a Mexican-layered bean dip. Yes, in horror, I watched as someone began to dip a Tortilla chip into what they thought was a dip, and I had neither the heart nor the dignity to tell them that it was, indeed, a cake. Therefore, I should have waved the white flag forevermore and never tried to cook anything for this annual party again. However, I thought I had progressed within two years and could tip-toe out on the Baker's limb and try to make my own creation, which is where the Pinterest paradox began. I saw this wonder and was determined that I could recreate it. Head held high, I went to the store, bought my supplies, and slaved away all afternnon (literally) to only offer up this to be burned as the next laughing-stock sacrifice...

Should I even mention that when my sister walked in the door and saw the leftovers sitting on the kitchen counter, her first words were,

"Why are there Halloween cookies on the counter?"

(I am not kidding. A little piece of me died and sunk into the couch when I heard that.)

Apparently, my snowmen were skeletal. 

All jest aside, I think this was a good reminder of the life lesson I mentioned earlier and a problem that I, and many other women, probably face on a daily basis. In so many facets of my life, I strive so hard to be the best- to be the perfect snowman cookie. It literally can be all-consuming. I want to be the perfect student, the perfect friend, the perfect child, the perfect person who does my best at everything. Recently, this has also started to trickle over into the realm of marriage with becoming a wife in less than six months. I feel as if I am bound to be a Wonder Woman wife who has the perfectly decorated rooms, the immaculate home, the Paula Deen meal in the oven, all the while with a smile on my face and perfectly-kept hair. Don't get me wrong. I think these are all great ambitions and goals, and I definitely want to be the best person I can be in life, succeed in my career, wholeheartedly love those around me, be the best wife because that's what my fiance deserves,  

but

Sometimes, that's just not the way the cookie crumbles. There are going to be days where our hard efforts and snowmen are going to be mistaken for skeletons. There are going to be days when we mess up and fall short of our pedestal perfections. There are going to be days when I let down the people I love. There are going to be mistakes that I make in careers. There are definitely going to be days when I walk into a messy apartment and send a nice-prepared meal through an inferno and back. However, I think we have to remember, as I learned long ago but seemed to forget, that this is what life is all about. Life is found in the mishaps, the mistakes, the learning processes, the blunders, the laughs over the burnt dinners (I hope), and the moments when the best you can give is a mistaken Halloween cookie (figuratively speaking of course, I am sure you are all much better at baking than me).

Because, at the heart of it, life, love, and beauty are all found in the midst of all the imperfections.

and That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles.