This Is Real Life: For The Day After Mother's Day

Husbands are sleeping in today after the exhaustion of doing dishes and taking care of the kids all day yesterday so that their wives could have a bit of a break. The kids have already forgotten the sweet cards and hearty promises to be "soooo good on Mommy's special day" and are back to fighting over Legos at 7:30 a.m. and demanding cereal before Mommy's eyes are even fully open. The honeymoon is over and it's back to reality. Back to our daily lives of cleaning up spills, wiping bottoms, and washing floors. It never does end. But yesterday. . .yesterday was nice, wasn't it?!

If you are anything like me, I enjoyed a fantastic day of little responsibilities. The kids created homemade cards and gave me time to myself to write blogs and watch marathons on Netflix. Even after dinner, the hubs washed the dishes and layed down with the little monsters at bedtime. He was pretty darn great, I must say. But I also must say that he's pretty darn great and the littles are pretty darn sweet MOST DAYS. The "work of moms" are exhausting and sacrificial and repetitious and sometimes without gratitude, but even if we didn't get a day off once a year, we would still trudge along, doing what we do for our families. The same goes for dads, who once a year get really noticed for how hard they work to provide for the family. The day after Father's Day, they will go out there and do what they always do because it's also a privilege and not just a job.

For the day after Mother's Day, I want to take a few minutes to remind myself why I do what I do everyday. I want to remember why I yearned to be a mother even before I was one. When my belly was growing and I felt little kicks inside and I realized that the day was coming soon. . .why was this experience one that I couldn't live without? Because I think so many of us (myself included) wish that yesterday could have been longer! We wish we could leave all the responsibility parts to someone else. To not make breakfast before my eyelids were awake, and calm a tantruming child before sunrise because his toy wasn't operating correctly. To sleep in and wake up to a clean house and clean children and a cleared schedule seems like an amazing situation, but in all honesty, there's a certain pride that I would lack if I didn't feel like I was "doing it all". At the end of my normal days of mothering, I lay in bed and smile that it's over, but that I did it. God gave me enough stamina and strength and patience to keep everyone alive and healthy and well for one more day. And tomorrow, I get to do it all over again.

As we go back to our busy lives today, mamas, remember why you answered this call. This amazing call to make daily sacrifices for the good of your family. To make the decision to get up when you still want sleep. To prepare macaroni and cheese when you would prefer steak and potatoes. To curl up on the couch with Toy Story when dancing the night away seems a bit more appealing some nights. Because the moments of gratitude and pride that come when we watch our littles do something for themselves for the first time cannot be matched. When they look up at us with those big eyes and declare that MOMMY is their very best friend are moments that last a lifetime. When they would rather be in our arms or on our laps or curled up beside us than out with their friends. These moments will not last long. Before we know it they will be out in the real world and our work here will be done. We must remember, mamas how precious our time really is. It's worth the long, hard days of mothering. Nothing could possibly be more fulfilling than knowing that you did your best with these little humans. That this family is growing with the work you put into it. As I pray for patience and endurance for myself, I will pray a little your way too. This is such a challenging privilege, this chaos of mothering. May you held together by little smiles and "I love you's" throughout your days. :)