What I GET to be!

When I was a young mom,
in the days of feeling overwhelmed,
frazzled and exhausted-

Not all mine, but my house often had more people than we could count

I had a dear friend who told me
to enjoy EVERY day that I have
the privilege of raising my children.
Her reason-
'because one day they grow up and
move away

Proof that they do go away- leaving for an 18 month church mission

and you are left wondering how the
time slipped so quickly away'.

Many a day chaperoning field trips

I am going to be honest and confess
that at the time, I looked at her and thought
'buddy, you're off your rocker'

But not long after,
on a particularly frustrating day,
I stopped and thought about what she said.
And I realized that the wisdom in her
sentiment was the secret clue to mothering
(and parenting)

I changed my perspective from thinking
in terms of 'Everything I have to do in my day"
to thinking of "Everything I get to do in my day"

This helped me a ton to realize that being
with my kids; serving them, playing with them,
being present when they need it most-
all of that is a privilege, a blessing and a gift.

I met some amazing people through classroom volunteering

Just recently, one of my college kids needed
me to cover some expenses that had not been
adequately budgeted for. The money HAD been
there, BUT some really cute clothes, in some
really cute stores seemed to have gotten in the way!

I was a hair irritated,
(to say the least) and was a little less than
wonderful when I had to write the check-

As plain as can be, I had the realization that for
YEARS while I've been raising my children,
I have prayed that we would have the resources to
help them if they ever need it- time, money, talents-
whatever they would need, I pleaded that we
would have the ability to aid them in their
personal development-

Leaving two kids at USU this fall... man do I miss them

and here was a child,
who needed some help
and I had the means to help
AND YET, I was grumbling!!!

Boy oh BOY,
did this message strike me to the core?!

I realized that all the little things we do for our
children and our families can seem really
annoying and bothersome
and it's easy to feel like more like a servant than a
contributing member of society--

Just today, I had to take two lunches to kids at
school because they had left them on the counter-
This used to upset me so much-
I'd go the whole "natural consequences" direction
(if it was recurrent, I would try to fix it)
and refuse to bring the lunches!

The thing is,
I'm a stay at home mom-
have been for 20+ years-
I've played, frolicked, napped
and enjoyed so many WONDERFUL days
because of my MOMHOOD-
why would I have any time to fret
the times I am asked to be up to 
bat to score one for the team??

One more at USU

Mommy-ing can be a little exhausting and
it can seem very thankless at times-

but try to switch your perspective from
everything you have to do each day
(especially those things you have to do
EVERY day)
and focus your attention on all the great
things you GET to BE-
a friend, a confidant, a healer, a hero,
a day rescuer, a wiz at knowing the answer,
a game player, a sounding board
and more important than anything else

an example of EVERYTHING good & virtuous

Here's to MOM's everywhere!