I Am Not Super Mom

I have a habit of trying to do everything and refusing to not have everything done perfectly.  It's a pretty awful habit, actually.  Sure, if you ask me to do something, you pretty much know I will do it to the best of my abilities.  But I am also great at disappointing myself when I don't do things just right.
Today I am realizing that I spend a lot of time trying to be "Super Mom."  I try to keep my house perfectly clean.  I try to clip every coupon and save every bit of money I can.  I try to take a picture of my kids every day because they change so quickly. I want to cook healthy, homemade meals whenever possible.  And when I don't succeed at every one of those things, the rest of my day just goes downhill. 
Having two children has been an adjustment for me, but it really hasn't been that hard. I've had to find new ways to do some things, but for the most part, life hasn't gotten a lot more hectic (aside from having two kids needing me at one time, but that's to be expected.)  I use to enjoy trips to the grocery store with Cameron.  We would slowly stroll down the aisles, I would get everything on my list in perfect order and no additional items.  And we would peacefully leave the store to go home and unload immediately.  Then he turned two, and I had another baby.  My grocery trips now end up being chaotic, with at least one kid crying at some point in the store, Ben needing to be nursed (because heaven forbid he take a bottle for me once a week,) half of my list being tossed in the trash, extra things in my cart that I grab to compensate for not getting the needed items, forgetting to use my coupons, and keeping groceries in the car for twenty minutes so that I can feed Ben before he screams too much once we get home.  I now despise grocery shopping.  How can two tiny things make something I used to love turn into something I now dread?!
As I was sitting quietly in the car after loading the groceries into it from the cart and the kids were content for a couple minutes, I realized that the problem is not that my family was growing.  My problem is that my expectations are staying the same.  I expect everything to be perfect.  I expect it to all be easy.  I expect to make it through a shopping trip with no meltdowns.  Just having a two year old negates every one of my expectations, and then I added a baby to the mix. Why do I always think it all has to be perfect?  Why can't I accept that sometimes I won't get everything done, and that a lot of times it won't all be done just so?
Colossians 3:23-24 says, "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ."  It doesn't say, "You must complete all grocery shopping with no tears, saving 50% of your total, and quickly return home by naptime."  It also doesn't say, "You must be perfect at everything."  We are to strive to be our best for God, but the only perfect person to ever walk this earth was Jesus Christ.  Now, that doesn't mean that we can purposely not try our best.  But it does mean that when we fail, we are not done for.  God knows we will fail.  That's why he graciously sent his son to die in our place and to take the punishment of our sin and inadequacies.  God created a rest for us because he knew our earthly bodies and minds could not withstand the pressure to be perfect.  "And he said to them, 'The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath'" (Mark 2:27.)
I am thankful that we have a God who understands that we cannot be perfect, especially by our own outrageous standards. From now on, I will remember that it is just fine to be "Mom," because "Super Mom" doesn't exist.