In light of Mother's Day coming up on Sunday, I have a few thoughts:
Not only do I feel that Mother's Day is a day to honor those mothers who have influenced my life for good in so many ways (because they are simply amazing...more on that later), but I feel like it's a day to reflect on how incredibly blessed I feel to be counted among Mothers. Am I treating it as the sacred job that it is to get to be the "one" to care for these children?
Each Mother's Day I try to re-evaluate how I'm doing as a mother. I love Iris Krasnow's quote: "Being There [is] an emotional and spiritual shift, of succumbing to Being Where You Are When You Are, and Being There as much as possible. Its about crouching on the floor and getting delirious over the praying mantis your son just caught instead of perusing a fax or filling the dishwasher while he is yelling for your attention and you distractedly say over your shoulder: 'Oh, honey, isn’t that a pretty bug.' It’s about being attuned enough to notice when your kid’s eyes shine so you can make your eyes shine back.”
I'm working on making my eyes shine back and slowing down instead of stressing out about the myriad of "do dos" stretching out endlessly before me.
And I'm working on turning everything else "off" when they're home from school. Which is VERY hard, I might add, in our technology driven society!
I want to be in the moment as much as I can. That's when I'm happiest.
I also want to "give back" to other mothers who have buoyed me up in my motherhood.
So..........I'm going host a couple give-aways this week in honor of Mother's Day.
Things I think will help other mothers re-evaluate their mothering too.
Today the give-away is "A Mother's Book of Secrets."
I've never done one of these before, so bear with me! But I want as many people as possible to have this motherhood book in their hands.
It has a two-fold purpose, you see. Not only will it help you remember/renew your own Motherhood "secrets," and help you add to your arsenal (I'm a little biased, but I feel like it has the power to jolt mothers into more conscientious mothering), but each copy sold will help fight blindness (we give 100% of the royalties to the Foundation Fighting Blindness and Foundation for Blind Children). And sometimes, like when Lucy looks right past me in the dark like she is a blind person, I just want to stand up and fight harder than ever against that.
If you already have one of these puppies, hey, who couldn't use a Motherhood book to give away to a friend?
So, this is what we're going to do:
Leave a comment if you want to be in the drawing.
I will draw a winner on Friday.
Oh wait, you already know about give-aways.
Love, Shawni
p.s. And remember, just in case you don't want to wait for all this mumbo jumbo give-away stuff and you really want to get a book for yourself or someone else special for Mother's Day (there's still time!), click here. They're 20% off in honor of Lucy.
But even if you buy one, still enter the give-away. You can't have too many motherhood books!
Please note that this give-away is now closed. Thanks so much for the entries!Labels: give-away, motherhood, my book
