Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day. I'm so thankful to be a mom. Parker was telling me about a woman who spoke at "take your child to work day" and he said, "Mom, she has two jobs! What's your job?" I responded, "Well, I'm a mom." His response, "That's not a job!" Oh kids! I then explained to him all the things I do everyday, and then he said, "Wow, that's tiring!" 

Motherhood has challenged me in ways that no other job could. The hours are long, my patience is regularly tried, and my only regular evaluations come in the form of criticism from my 5 and 3 year old (which is a very humbling experience)... but how lucky am I to get to experience everyday with these amazing kids?!?!? I know these kids inside and out and I'm there to experience every joy and every tear. But there are definitely times when I struggle with feeling like I'm good enough, feeling like a real person (not just a maid, janitor, doctor, accountant, babysitter, teacher, etc...), and feeling like I have any goals outside of my kids. But I try to remind myself that what I'm doing is a big deal. I'm contributing to the next generation of excellence by raising my kids with values, strong character, and with love. There's an awesome article on Power of Moms called "Your Children Want YOU!" and the author did a great audio post reading the article and then going into some background. It'll bring on an ugly cry, but it's worth it. Listen here. I may fall into the comparison trap and tend to focus on the things I'm not doing, but it all comes back to the fact that my kids were handpicked by God for me. I am the perfect mom for them, even though I'm not a perfect mom. And I just need to keep going and keep trying to be a little more loving, a little more patient, a little more fun. 

Pete helped the boys make these cards for me. Parker's is very true and straightforward: 

 Austin's... sounds like Austin! It's cute and precious and distracted and perfect.

 The boys also picked out these rainbow flowers for me. They were very specific about these flowers.

 How lucky am I that these guys are mine, and soon there will be three!!!!!!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the women of influence in my life. My own mom is such a wonderful example to me and is a great sounding board for all my mothering challenges. Isn't it wonderful to be able to learn from those around us? We are all in this together and I feel like when I chose to learn from others, instead of comparing myself to them, we can all flourish and thrive as deliberate mothers.