I love the blogosphere. I really do. Duh, I’m a blogger. I love the peeks into other people’s lives and the great ideas. There are a lot of really cool people writing about a lot of really cool things. But, sometimes it makes me feel stressed. You know? Like I’ll never measure up. Or that I'm totally and completely under the pile. Because there are just so many good ideas out there. Fun things to make and do. Ideas for motivating the kids. Deals to be found by couponing.

Sometimes, when the latest post comes to my feed about the current deals at Target and how I can use a coupon from the Sunday paper combined with a coupon from the Web to get toothpaste for two cents, I feel completely defeated. Because I forgot to buy the Sunday paper. And, now, I’ve ruined everything.

One day, I had 52 posts in my Google Reader in the “grocery shopping” folder. I’m not kidding. It was full of great posts by some lovely women who are looking well to the ways of their household and are just sharing their tips. I’m grateful to benefit from their expertise.

But, I have to admit that I felt like a failure before I even started wading through them. Because I knew I wasn’t really going to do much with all of that info. Mostly because I didn’t really want to go to CVS and Walgreens and Target and Dollar Tree to get the best deals at each place. I just didn’t. But, I felt like I should.

It’s like a whole new level of attempting the Proverbs 31 woman. Because now you can compare yourself to hundreds of women you’ve never met instead of to the handful moms that you know from church or the library or school. At least with those moms, you’ve seen them yell at their kids in a moment of weakness or give in to a tantrum at the park. Not so much with the blogosphere.

You just see awesome coupon-clipper mom who saves her family $600 a month by her diligence. In fact, not only does she do that, she also makes her applesauce from scratch (with pesticide-free apples she picked at the orchard) while incorporating the whole experience into a homeschool lesson on measurement with her six delightful children who love being with their siblings all day long, every single day.

I’m here to tell you that’s not always the reality. When I write a post about our recent successes with our allowance-chore system, it’s because we’ve finally stumbled on something that works for us. I’m probably NOT going to write about the weeks I forget to pay them or the weeks they are selfish and expect to get paid for every little thing they do to help out around here.

My advice? Enjoy what other women are doing, be a part of the conversation when you want to, and glean what you can. Then take your new nugget of info to your husband and to the Lord. Does God want you to be a better steward and clip more coupons? Maybe. Or maybe He wants you to spend that time volunteering at your kids’ school. Even if it means you spend a little more on groceries. Only you and He can discern that.

I just gave you some advice. In a blog. Yikes. I hope that didn’t stress you out…