I didn’t know I’d lost a piece of myself until I joined Snapchat. “It’s too unedited.” That’s what I told Kev prior. It wasn’t until my 11th post in, the post where I finally mustered enough courage to record myself talking, that I said in a sing-songy voice, “Unstyled salad. This is so liberating!” I’ve continued to over-snap unedited bits of life since—the normal parts that seem too unworthy for Instagram or even this space. (See giveaway details below.)
This post was created in partnership with Seven Sundays muesli, a breakfast cereal made with wholesome, real ingredients. Though I work with Seven Sundays, this is what we buy to fill our cereal bowls. When we’re not eating it soaked or warmed, we eat it straight out of the bag. It’s that good.
Do you remember the early days of blogging? Of point-and-shoot pictures and recipes barely adapted from everyone else? Do you remember the days that preceded ombre Pinterest smoothie bowls and pretend dinner parties? The days where you could post unattractive, poorly-lit pictures from everyday life to your Instagram feed with a yellowed filter? The days where blogging seemed to be a reaction to the unattainable scenes of magazine spreads.
In forgetting those days, I lost a little piece of myself. The loose, unedited side. The side without a backspace. The side that makes us all charmingly human.
Being human is dragging yourself out of bed Monday-Friday with enough time to eat breakfast before work starts. Hopefully. It’s making waffles on the weekend and a quick bowl of cereal by weekday. It’s saying the wrong thing while trying to do the right thing. It’s smiling with spinach in your teeth. It’s drinking an extra glass of wine and binge watching House of Cards.
#shareyoureveryday. That’s the hashtag behind Seven Sundays muesli. I took their encouragement to share our typical, everyday mornings. The mornings made without a recipe. The deleted scenes that only make it on to Snapchat.
We start our hurried weekday mornings the same way—with eggs and toast or a bowl of Seven Sundays muesli. (Balusali as Hallie calls it. She also calls me Balissa.) And always, always pour over coffee for me. Kev usually preps the muesli bowls. Cherry Pecan for me. Blueberry Chia for he and Hal. And Cocoa Coconut for everyone when we find it (it’s new and akin to Cocoa Crisps, only wholesome!). We let the muesli soak in milk while I make coffee. “Daddy, will you play with me?” she says. She knows I’m out of commission pre-coffee. Ten minutes later, I top my muesli with a swirl of honey. Kev usually grabs for the maple syrup. I stand. They sit at the counter. And we eat. Inevitably Hallie cries when her daddy leaves for work. They’re the best of friends. Thinking out loud, Kev wonders if he should head to work before she wakes up to keep the alligator tears at bay. But we do it all again tomorrow.
I’m teaming up with Seven Sundays to give 3 people our morning “recipe”, aka our favorite Seven Sundays muesli (pick your 3 favorite flavors), Minnesota honey, an enamel bowl and mug from Rejuvenation, and thee best coffee beans from The Bachelor Farmer Cafe. Alligator tears not included. See details below. Also, join Hannah Barnstable, the founder, and me as we talk more about muesli and how to eat it (on-the-go, overnight, or baked) on my Nomcast tomorrow (4/15) at 10:30 am CST. She’s sharing her original, secret sauce recipe too. See you there!
I’ll end with a little toast (not the bread kind). Cheers to celebrating the deleted scenes and the everyday. It’s got its own set of magic.
Edited out are all the tears and screaming at nap time…all three nap times 😉 and then as soon as he falls asleep I watch the camera and miss him.
Love this post.
Love your blog. Best part of my day is just waking up and knowing I have the rest of the day to shape how I wish – unless I’m working…then it’s go go go!
Did you just talk me into SnapChat? 🙂 Love unscripted moments and am not that great of a photographer anyways, so perhaps that’s a good idea. Styling imaginary dinner parties is for the birds, and we all know the only “person” joining us on most evenings is a cat trying to snag some frittata. This muesli looks lovely!
The getting home from work and flopping on the couch part is the best for me! And not very Instagrammable. 😉
One of the favorite parts of my day is coming home to my family, usually it’s quite messy and unshareable but it is important to me.
My kids refuse any granola/museli/oatmeal…but that means more for me. It’s my fave!
I always start my morning with a sans-sunglasses walk around the block. Even pre-coffee, just letting the sun wake me up!
Love this post! And that muesli looks delicious:)
Cute! We avoid the alligator tears and I bolt before Ingrid’s awake, but having breakfast as a family sounds nice, too.
Coffee in the morning is my favorite part of the day 🙂
a walk after work to unwind….something i don’t want to share with anyone…. even as an instagram post
My best part of my day…when I crawl into bed with my husband…no social media there!
I’m so excited to try this muesli! Looks delish!
Just watched your Nomcast. Thanks for background info and the recipe. I loved eating museli when I was in Europe also!
Thanks for watching!
Not really deleted I just don’t like to share! But the sweet moments when my honey does nice little things.
I tend to leave out toddler fits. Although, they are heart-breakingly funny in their own way.
I love your snaps! All those little shots/videos of Hal make me crack up. I was initially drawn to it because of the lack of editing/greater sense of real life, and I’m so happy that people are getting on board with it now. Snap ya later 😉
Seeing my two young children ( 3 and 19 months) laughing and playing together. Although they fight too, they have so much joy in each other. No picture can fully express that joy.
Cuddling all together in bed just after wake up… “All five of us” as my son would say (I love how the cat is always included as another human!)
I’m not on social media. 🙂
Most of my day goes undocumented, especially since I haven’t had the courage to sign up for snapchat yet. I do love posting pretty pictures of food but what doesn’t make it to Instagram is me standing over the counter eating tortilla chips or veggie sticks and hummus. Or whatever I can scrounge from the fridge. And that’s most of the time!
Hmm, interesting question. It would have to be the blurry pictures I take while the family is having fun. It’s too hard to slow things down for a good shot.
It doesn’t get deleted, but it never makes it to social media – our nightly routine. My 2 year old rocks w/ my husband or me and we sing Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I want to remember the way she sings this song forever. At the end instead of saying “I” she says it “pieeeeee”….Each day, it melts my heart.
Anything that is in my day-to-day routine tends to not make the cut on social media. If you scroll through my Instagram feed, it looks like all I do is ski, surf, go on adventures and eat delicious food. The mundane hours of studying, work, and fried-egg-and-toast dinners rarely make an appearance.
My morning daily burns are just for me 🙂 LOVE this post!
I only use Facebook. I lose enough of my time there so I am sort of afraid to try the others ?
Unedited is the best way. The Instagram life is pretty, inspiring, definitely has a place, but misses out on the tears, frustration, and the rest of life that makes it real and makes me appreciate the hugs, smiles, and laughter that much more!
Super glad you joined snapchat <3 because the unedited are what I love…I think people truly do like seeing real people, it makes us all feel more connected since we are all real people….welcome to the unfiltered and unedited side of connecting 🙂 it is my favorite 🙂
The best part of my day is having my coffee in my garden when there is just a splinter of light. My cats and dogs mull around and I can check on my garden before the chickens get up.
The time spent refereeing brothers. ..that never gets shown (not is it fun).
Muesli with yogurt is my favorite kind of meal!
And thanks for sharing “unedited” pieces of your life, Melissa!
sweats + unglamorous dinner devoured on the couch most nights!
all of the most mundane, little real life moments that matter get edited out! everything in between the highlight reel
Pretty much my whole day gets left off of social media…at least during the week. I feel weird sharing large swaths of my life online and the idea of a “curated” instagram feed overwhelms me immensely.
The best moment of my day is being the first awake and making coffee in my Chemex. I look forward to that first cup almost every day.
I rarely put any of my day on social media – the viewing public is much better off that way! 🙂
I’m not a big social media person, so most, if not all, of my day gets posted. But the best moments of my day: seeing my husband and toddler chase each other around after dinner time, and my toddler who always reminds me everyday on our walks that there are beautiful flowers blooming.
The best, unedited part of my day is when my little family gathers around our kitchen table at the end of the day to eat dinner together.
Aw, this post turned out so well! You nailed it. I had the cocoa coconut muesli on Sunday morning at the workshop, and I was lucky enough to snag one of those bags to take home with me. I’m looking forward to having a bowl of that with fresh strawberries on Saturday morning. 🙂
I think the best moments of my day that don’t often make it to Instagram are the random hugs from Robert and the random snuggles with Gilmour. Particularly when we’re done eating dinner, our dinner TV show is over, and we don’t feel like moving on with our with lives yet so we all just lounge on the couch for 5 minutes and soak up the day.
The worst part of my day is waking up on the couch yet again, even though I live in a studio apartment, and my bed is approximately 10 feet away. I’m just too exhausted at the end of the day to move!
The best part of my day is taking my dogs for a walk when I get home from work!
Well, I’m not on social media, so nothing gets deleted! I kind of like keeping it to myself. But the good moments are when my daughter wakes up in a good mood with a smile, or my son falls back down in bed swathed in a cozy blanket. Or the rare day when we all sit around the table and eat the same meal at the same time!
I love this post. I think in many ways the raw, un-edited, real-life posts are more inspiring and encouraging than the beautiful lit and edited version. i loved you snap about the un-photogenic salad!
Too much of the day is edited away. I live in the Mexican Maya Riviera and often I take for granted the two parrots I see fly overhead everyday on my way to work, the warmth of the sunshine on my skin, the smell of the sea air, the wind in the palm trees. It all get’s taken for granted not mentioned because everyday becomes mundane, becomes routine and it becomes monotonous. Thank you for the reminder to think about these things and to comment about them. On the side of that this post came at a great time. I had taken a step from my healthy breakfast and have just gotten back to granola this week. Thanks for always writing such thoughtful and thought inspiring posts. xo – H
I’m not a huge fan of posting on social media. I like following others though 🙂
I usually have a frozen burrito with half an avocado for lunch… like, almost every day. Pretty sure I’d be the most boring food blogger ever if I posted that :). And then my husband and I eat most dinners in front of netflix wearing sweat pants… def not showing that on the ol instagram!
Waking up, bleary eyed, and trying to get a piece of toast and tea prepared and consumed before my 1.5 year old daughter wakes up. It’s the peaceful time I cherish in the morning, before the crazy. However, going to get her from her crib is also one of the sweetest moments of my day. 🙂
Love this muesli!!
I’m a non poster 95% of the time, so I guess I’m editing everything? I’ve limited my time on social media this year. In real life, though, I’m working on being more vulnerable and not keeping up a picture perfect image (Brene Brown style). Cheers to keeping it real!
was JUST thinking about this topic yesterday when i attempted to make lemon donuts that, had they gone as planned, would’ve been posted to some form of social media. however, they were a TOTAL flop – completely sunk down into the pan. oops! but did my husband and i scrape them from the pan and eat them with a spoon? sure did 🙂
I haven’t been posting much of anything lately, and deleted fb from my phone for awhile. I’m not exactly sure why, but it’s so liberating!
I don’t share any of it actually!! So actually all of it..keep all my social media pics non life related
Love seeing people’s real life snap chats! This muesli looks delicious, thx for the giveaway ?
Snapchat has totally allowed me to be, embarrassingly, unedited. Ugly plastic cutting boards, unstyled lunches, weird selfies, and crazy squirrel voices! I love the sound of that cocoa-coconut muesli, definitely keeping an eye out for that one!
By the way, I love you on Snapchat 🙂 I felt the same way when I started up, “whoa, should I show this side of me?” Love your sweet breakfast routine!
The best part of my day that doesn’t get shard on social media is every evening I spend with my partner making/eating dinner and hanging out. It would be so easy to gush every day about him but I don’t want to be one of “those people.” 😉
My favorite blog posts are the ones that tell the not perfect stories. The reality of what happens behind the facade of those perfect photos. The realness is what makes blogs so appealing to me!
Kari
http://www.sweetteasweetie.com
I love this! These have been some of my exact thoughts the last couple of weeks using snapchat. Love seeing bits and pieces of your life. Thanks for sharing! xo
Thank you!
Just hanging out with my husband. It’s the best part of the day, but it’s not pretty or photogenic. It’s just us on the couch with the dog.
My red face after a workout. No one needs to see that!
Thank you for sharing the reason behind your newfound love of Snapchat and the unedited scenes that make up most of your life. It’s refreshing to hear someone resist merely waxing poetic on the golden, pre-social media days while contradictorily participating in it. It’s nice to know we’re all sort of existing in this weird space between going back and moving forward, and these photos, however real they may be, are so beautiful.
I sat on this post for so long for that reason. I’m a huge contributor to it. I think I’ll always struggle with the edited vs unedited pieces but I guess it’s good to just sit in the struggle. Thank you for the very thoughtful comment and articulating so well what I couldn’t!
Snapchat has also liberated my social media game! AND reminded me that I don’t actually care that much. So some days my Insta and Snap games are strong. And others I’m all like, “who really cares anyway?” Last night I shared my sweet plans for the night on Instagram and it was as if I had forgotten the value of an excellent filter and witty caption. Last night’s capture had neither and I’m facing the shame of it this morning. And then I remind myself, “but it doesn’t really matter so …”
The worst thing that gets deleted from my social media is me….while that may seem selfish what I mean is what my kids see in me. Cooking dinner…..helping with homework…..goofing around with them. I have a ton of pictures of them ( and some selfies of course ) but no real pictures of me doing what I do. That is something I wish I could capture.
I’ve been in such a breakfast rut lately! These look great and perfect when I’m late for work (errday).
This post is soooo true! My social media posts happen in between changing diapers, entertaining toddlers, folding laundry (if I even get to that) and doing dishes. I’m trying to find the balance between sharing real life and sharing pretty (and tasty) things! This post was a great reminder of the beauty of the unedited!
I work all day and do grad school work all night, and one of my most normal, happy parts of my day is lighting a candle before I hunker down and get to work in the evenings. In some weird way, it symbolizes that my grad work has purpose and meaning and that I’m doing the right thing.
The best unedited parts of my day are dog walks, morning hugs with my husband, and spontaneous dance parties in the kitchen at night.
The best part of my day never gets shared on social media – snuggling up next to my husband, drinking tea and reading before bed.
This is why I don’t use social media! I prefer real life!!
Such true words! Sometimes we really get swept up in having the perfect social media and forget about just enjoying life as it is. Love muesli and this brand looks delicious!
It’s so good to be reminded of the imperfection behind the screens. As good as recipes are, it’s the non recipe days that form the background to our lives.
The best moment of my day, that doesn’t get shared on social media is usually when I’m actually cooking: when I’m making a meal for my friends on a random weeknight or cooking all day on Sunday so my weekdays are a little less hectic. I tend to have my guy over on those Sundays that I cook so that I can share with him what I’m cooking and so that the end to his week is restful. That’s definitely a good thing that I don’t share on social media because I don’t want to lose the sweetness of that time together. It includes: the messy kitchen, the dirty dishes, savory smells of dinner, a Jack Johnson playlist, and him sleeping on the couch while I cook. It’s ordinary and beautiful and those are my favorite days.
coming home to my dog is rarely instagrammed or shared but definitely messy and adorable and unfiltered.
The early mornings when were rushing around,,getting the pups out, breakfast made, lunches made, kids out the door, and oh,,breathing.
Social media is weird. The best parts of my day are the reruns of office episodes at the end of a long day and eating the broken cookies over the sink.
That is the sweetest that your daughter is actually in tears when Daddy goes to work! That made my morning!
I think it’s the reality of life. As you wrote in your blog post, everything is so edited now to be presented on social media. For me it’s a bit too perfect that it just looks fake and not like real life at all. That being said, I still enjoy social media and seeing people’s perfect photos – perfectly placed meals, etc.
I’m training for an Ironman 70.3 and I don’t post the hard, grueling and sweaty workouts that make me want to puke. (I also don’t post the gross amount of food both my husband–who is also racing–consume.) Ha!
The right after school snapshot. Lunch boxes, backpacks, water bottles, permission slips, books, dinner prep, etc alllllllllll over the counters. So so so many words and stories. So not perfect. So not pretty. Still my favorite.
Edited out are:
Stumbling out of bed struggling to put my contacts on and get ready for work. The subtle interactions with New Yorkers as I walk to work,and my nightly routine
The best moments of my day are typically edited out too. Morning hair and peanut buttery/milky kisses from a sleepy toddler, eating from carryout containers on the couch with my husband, and the “ugly pieces” of baked goods that will never make it to the blog but are certainly delicious enough for me to nibble on while standing over the sink. Totally hearing ya here!
Love this so much!
sweat pants and old t-shirt dinner table time // thats just for me 🙂
Oh that looks so yummy! The best part of my day that doesn’t get on social media is when I hold my baby in the morning after he’s been fed and he looks at me with a smile.
The worst part of my day is the part where I stress out over homework because that’s all school is good for. It definitely isn’t captured by social media.
My first thoughts of the day 🙂
most of my day is unedited 🙂 great giveaway! love muesli…