I hope your Mothers Day was wonderful! Mine was. The celebration part anyway. I had to work on Mother's Day, so we mostly celebrated on Saturday. We went to dinner, and I came home to some beautiful flowers and one of those recordable cards that the kids talked on with a cool song, and some presents. I did my own Mothers Day shopping - a few decorations for the house, a new church outfit, and a book on motherhood. It was perfect.
I love being a mom. I am so grateful the Lord has given me the opportunity to be a mother to His daughters, and a special mom to Grant. I can't even thank Him enough for the beautiful, wonderful kids we have been blessed with! They are all so different from each other and each has captured a special place in my heart forever. I am so grateful for my mom and the great example she is to me. I am also grateful for her friendship and for being such a good grandma to my kids. And of course for my husband's mom. What a wonderful woman! I admire her so much and am so grateful for all she did to raise the super wonderful son that she did. My kids love their grandmas SO much. Whenever they hear either one of their voices when they walk in our house, the kids drop whatever they are doing and make a mad dash to grandma. We love you both so much!
Being a mom is hard but so great. The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that motherhood and missionary work have a lot in common, as I’ve come to realize after thinking about this for a couple of weeks. You are called into full-time service. You are sent into strange lands, set to doing unfamiliar things. You are given responsibility over souls to teach and to show the way to live. And it can be the great spiritual experience of your life, if you let it. Before I was called on a mission, I was excited about the glamor of missionary work. I get the black tag, I get to wear a dress every day, see thousands of people baptized and teach discussions to dozens of eager listeners. Then I WENT on a mission, and I realized that missionary work is mostly just plain WORK.
Before I became a mom, I was excited about the glamor of motherhood. I get the cute stroller, the Baby Bjorn, the diaper bag, the walks in the park and at the mall. And let’s talk about shopping for the teeny clothes! Ah, be still my heart. Then Ellie was born. She was a good baby, but still - a baby. 23 months later, along came Addie. Then 16 months after that Macie arrived And I knew I was in for it bigtime. I began to realize that motherhood is mostly just plain HARD WORK. And for motherhood, just as in missionary work the development of virtues that may not come naturally, like patience – oh, so much patience. And longsuffering, the ability to keep long hours, the ability to see deeply and with perspective, the ability to see that these are choice spirits whom Heavenly Father has entrusted me with for a little season. Is a gift that only comes because of the sacrifices involved.
I love the quote by the First Presidency, "Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind." But it often doesn’t feel that high or that holy. Especially on your knees scrubbing, or folding endless laundry, or the rounds of cooking and cleaning and cooking again, washing sand out of hair and clothing and, well, pretty much everywhere – learning to tolerate a much higher level of noise and chaos, and that "barely keeping it together" feeling. But it is so worth it. Oh so worth it.
On another note . . .LJ had knee surgery yesterday on a torn miniscus. This is his most painful recovery yet (oh, yes, this is is 4th knee surgery), but he's doing okay when the pain pills are working. Normally he's nice and sweet and funny - but it's even better when he's on narcotics. I felt like a sexy supermodel all day between the anesthesia, IV pain meds in recovery, and the pain pills. :)
So, I have the entire week off to help LJ and watch the kids. It's been so fun to be home. But (refer to paragraph above), hard work. At the beginning of the week I had a giant list of everything I wanted to accomplish this week since I was "off work" - work out everyday, keep the house perfectly clean, organize all the closets and make a D.I. run, blog everyday, clean the basement (storage), paint the laundry room and pantry, make an incredible dinner every night, scrapbook . . . but without LJ's help with the kids, it's just not happening. Between feeding kids, getting kids ready, changing diapers, holding crying kids, changing Addie's clothes when she decided to jump in Macie's bath water fully clothed. . .you get the idea. So I give up. I decided I'm just going to enjoy the week. Focus on LJ and the kids and just BE with them. I'll let you know how it goes. :)
I love being a mom. I am so grateful the Lord has given me the opportunity to be a mother to His daughters, and a special mom to Grant. I can't even thank Him enough for the beautiful, wonderful kids we have been blessed with! They are all so different from each other and each has captured a special place in my heart forever. I am so grateful for my mom and the great example she is to me. I am also grateful for her friendship and for being such a good grandma to my kids. And of course for my husband's mom. What a wonderful woman! I admire her so much and am so grateful for all she did to raise the super wonderful son that she did. My kids love their grandmas SO much. Whenever they hear either one of their voices when they walk in our house, the kids drop whatever they are doing and make a mad dash to grandma. We love you both so much!
Being a mom is hard but so great. The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that motherhood and missionary work have a lot in common, as I’ve come to realize after thinking about this for a couple of weeks. You are called into full-time service. You are sent into strange lands, set to doing unfamiliar things. You are given responsibility over souls to teach and to show the way to live. And it can be the great spiritual experience of your life, if you let it. Before I was called on a mission, I was excited about the glamor of missionary work. I get the black tag, I get to wear a dress every day, see thousands of people baptized and teach discussions to dozens of eager listeners. Then I WENT on a mission, and I realized that missionary work is mostly just plain WORK.
Before I became a mom, I was excited about the glamor of motherhood. I get the cute stroller, the Baby Bjorn, the diaper bag, the walks in the park and at the mall. And let’s talk about shopping for the teeny clothes! Ah, be still my heart. Then Ellie was born. She was a good baby, but still - a baby. 23 months later, along came Addie. Then 16 months after that Macie arrived And I knew I was in for it bigtime. I began to realize that motherhood is mostly just plain HARD WORK. And for motherhood, just as in missionary work the development of virtues that may not come naturally, like patience – oh, so much patience. And longsuffering, the ability to keep long hours, the ability to see deeply and with perspective, the ability to see that these are choice spirits whom Heavenly Father has entrusted me with for a little season. Is a gift that only comes because of the sacrifices involved.
I love the quote by the First Presidency, "Motherhood is near to divinity. It is the highest, holiest service to be assumed by mankind." But it often doesn’t feel that high or that holy. Especially on your knees scrubbing, or folding endless laundry, or the rounds of cooking and cleaning and cooking again, washing sand out of hair and clothing and, well, pretty much everywhere – learning to tolerate a much higher level of noise and chaos, and that "barely keeping it together" feeling. But it is so worth it. Oh so worth it.
On another note . . .LJ had knee surgery yesterday on a torn miniscus. This is his most painful recovery yet (oh, yes, this is is 4th knee surgery), but he's doing okay when the pain pills are working. Normally he's nice and sweet and funny - but it's even better when he's on narcotics. I felt like a sexy supermodel all day between the anesthesia, IV pain meds in recovery, and the pain pills. :)
So, I have the entire week off to help LJ and watch the kids. It's been so fun to be home. But (refer to paragraph above), hard work. At the beginning of the week I had a giant list of everything I wanted to accomplish this week since I was "off work" - work out everyday, keep the house perfectly clean, organize all the closets and make a D.I. run, blog everyday, clean the basement (storage), paint the laundry room and pantry, make an incredible dinner every night, scrapbook . . . but without LJ's help with the kids, it's just not happening. Between feeding kids, getting kids ready, changing diapers, holding crying kids, changing Addie's clothes when she decided to jump in Macie's bath water fully clothed. . .you get the idea. So I give up. I decided I'm just going to enjoy the week. Focus on LJ and the kids and just BE with them. I'll let you know how it goes. :)
2 comments:
I am so glad for post. Motherhood is hard work! I got caught up in the thought of all the cute baby accessories too then Cohen came and I realized what motherhood is really about. Mothers definitely have to be selfless. If you can do it with three it gives hope I can handle the one. Thanks for your thoughts on a day when I really needed it.
I Love love love this post! Thanks for uplifting my day, love ya!
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