Mother's Day

Yeah, it was a while ago. But I have to document it.

Because although it was a great day, it was kind of a crumby day too.

Let me back up to the day before to explain why. Because the day before was one of the best parts.

One of the things Dave likes to tell our kids is that we work hard and then we play hard.

And on the day before Mother's Day we did just that. I decided I was going to give myself an early Mother's Day gift: clean, sparkling baseboards AND a pedicure with my girls. You must understand that this pedicure business is like a once-every-other-year kinda deal...we're not the family of girls that gets to do pedicures all the time so this was extra special. I mean, don't get me wrong, "fancy" pedicures are given out pretty much daily around our house (my personal favorite is posted in the middle of this post).

But I deemed a real pedicure a worthy reward if my girls would pull out the Magic Erasers (LOVE THOSE by the way) and scrub every baseboard downstairs. So we all worked our little hearts out (yeah, they were really dirty and we did all the kitchen cabinets too). I love when there's a very worthy goal at the end of hard work because it actually makes the work fun. Apparently my girls agree because wowzers, those baseboards were shining and fingers were rubbed raw but smiles were stretched across every face as we headed out for our reward.

On Mother's Day morning Dave made his signature omelets (my request each b-day and Mother's Day), and I was showered with all kinds of sweet notes and services.

But here's where the day got a little bit crumby:

When the time wound down for us to get in the car to head for church no one could seem to find Sunday shoes. Well, a couple girls found one shoe. But that wasn't going to do us much good unless we faked we had a couple broken feet and wrapped ace bandages around the feet with missing shoes...should have done that :)

That little thing snowballed into frustration on a lot of fronts. Why can I not pull my life together enough to get my children to church on time for once? Why can I not have a better schedule so that things can run more smoothly? And these thoughts led slowly to lamenting about how I cannot keep up with cutting all the fingernails or keeping the laundry folded or responding sweetly when children are disrespectful. I can't keep up with Lucy's doctor schedule and so many of my "big ideas" seem to go by the wayside with the hustle and bustle that fills up the nooks and crannies of our life.

What made it worse is that I'm supposed to be this really great mother. I even have a title for it and everything. But for some reason for a while there on Mother's Day all that I could think of were my shortcomings.

Sometimes, despite valiant efforts the job of a mother seems to be so overwhelming. Things don't seem to work out how we plan. We lose our temper. We make mistakes.

But I guess the trick is picking ourselves up and keeping going on the path.

I looked around at my children later that afternoon and realized that they forgave me for all my shortcomings. They love me just the way I am. Sure, there is always room (a lot of it!) for improvement. But when we give with our hearts and we try our best it's enough.

Even if sheets aren't changed every week and our kids aren't miraculously the best "hard workers" on the block. Life is long (as my Mom always says). And we have to take baby steps to become the kind of person we dream of being.
I'm so grateful for this family of mine who looks over all the not-so-great aspects of my motherhood and honors me for the good stuff that comes out here and there.

We ended the day with a manicure and some back rubs...
...and a family trip to the park:
And once again I was washed over with gratitude for that blessing I get to have...

That of being a Mother.

Their mother. I am one lucky lady.

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