Description:
Ariel Baxter has just moved into the neighborhood of her dreams. The chaos of domestic life and the loneliness of motherhood, however, moved with her. Then she meets her neighbor, Justine Miller. Justine ushers Ariel into a world of clutter-free houses, fresh-baked bread, homemade crafts, neighborhood playdates, and organization techniques designed to make marriage better and parenting manageable.
Soon Ariel realizes there is hope for peace, friendship, and clean kitchen counters. But when rumors start to circulate about Justine’s real home life, Ariel must choose whether to believe the best about the friend she admires or consider the possibility that “perfection” isn’t always what it seems to be.
A novel for every woman who has looked at another woman’s life and said, “I want what she has,” She Makes It Look Easy reminds us of the danger of pedestals and the beauty of authentic friendship.
My Thoughts:
This book spoke to a part of my that's been raw and struggling lately. I have a terrible habbit of comparing myself to other moms and seeing where I lack. I also really wrestle with a sense of inadequacey because I'm not the best at organizing and keeping a perfect home. I should be better at it...I've read the organizing books, I've even given talks to my church's MOPs group about organizing and cleaning strategies. I've followed Flylady.net and made beautiful binders for being organized. But, in reality, I'm not so good at it. I'm more of a creative soul and so I have a lot of clutter from whatever creative project I'm in the middle of. But more than just the organizing, I feel a sense of failure all the time when it comes to my mothering abilities. It seems there's always someone doing better at planning perfect family outings or creating perfect scrapbooks or teaching their 2nd-grader calculus...you get the idea.
All this to say that I could totally emphasize with Ariel when she meets Justine and feels like Justine is the epitomy of what a mother/wife/woman should look like. But the more you read about Justine, the more you see the pain inside her and the emptiness that comes from using control and perfectionism to create your own self worth. And when Justine starts going down a dangerous path, you see even more clearly how desperate she is to find value and how she looks for it in all the wrong places.
A great lesson about true friendship, accepting and loving who God has made us to be, and enjoying the moments of our lives that God has given us right where we are at without looking at someone else's world. The grass may seem greener on the other side, but there's a lot we don't know about how it feels to live there.
Book Bullets:
