Keepin' It Real Thursday

My cousin's wife's sister-in-law (say that five times fast) has a blog I love called Slaughterhouse Rules.  A couple of weeks ago, she started doing a new weekly feature called "Keepin' It Real Thursday".  Basically, each week she showcases something about her life that is not perfect (ie: what lies beneath the cushions of her couch, etc.).  Since I am someone who seems to be on an endless mission for perfection, I thought covering this weekly topic on my blog would be not only a humbling experience, but bring me one step closer to the perfection I so crave (ha).

Today I was digging through my bottomless pit of a handbag, trying to find something (as usual).  I literally grabbed a handful of receipts off the top and tossed them in the garbage along with my grocery list.  After returning home tonight, I was suddenly hit with what my topic for "Keepin' It Real Thursday" should be.

So...here's the inside of my bag:

It doesn't look that bad from the aeriel view, however, when I emptied the contents of my bag, here's what I found:

- My wallet
- A wristlet containing numerous coupons I've collected and some giftcards
- Kleenex
- My sunglasses
- Beau's sunglasses
- Kindergarten Roundup Packet
- Vaughn's birth certificate and social security card
- A bottle of Ibuprofen
- Dayquil
- An empty Dayquil package
- 3 original pieces of Vaughn's artwork
- A flash drive
- A button
- Tickets to Toy Story 3 on Ice from March 31
- A printoff of a Groupon manicure I purchased
- 2 lollipops
- A pack of gum with one piece in it
- 17 gum wrappers
- My red business card holder with two of my cards in it
- A small make up bag containing 5 lipsticks and 2 ponytail holders
- 2 chip clips for my hair
- 3 bobby pins
- A ponytail holder with a giant wad of hair on it
- Another lipstick, 4 lipglosses and some Burt's Bees lip stuff (for a grand total of 11 lip products)
- 3 bottles of lotion
- An envelope containing a package of thank you notes that have yet to be written with the gifts and who they are from written on the outside (sorry guys)
- Another package of thank you notes
- My address book
- A post it with info on a meeting I attended in February
- A highlighter
- 2 blue ink pens
- About 25 business cards from my neighbor's lawn business
- Random receipts
- Notes from a Women's Business Iniative Luncheon I attended in February
- My point and shoot camera
- Dentist reminder for my appointment in March
- A printout of the recipe for Luby's Mac & Cheese
- An ant (yes, as in the bug - and I do not like bugs even a little bit)

The irony of this is that really, if I look into my bag, I see a lot of things I have been neglecting and maybe why I have felt a sense of disorder lately.  I usually go into organizer mode when I feel like things are crazy, but lately, things have been crazy and I have just kind of stopped.  Hopefully, this will motivate me to do something.  Afterall, one of the notes I took at the Women's Business Iniative luncheon says:

"In order for change to happen, you have to take ownership.  You have to REMOVE should/supposed to from you vocabulary and change it to I WILL."

Maybe that will be my mantra for next week...maybe...