I wanted to share a few snapshots from my mother's day events. I had the sweet opportunity to savor time with not only my mom, but my sister too! As well as, of course, the rest of the family and my own sweet babies. I don't know about any of you other moms with young kids, but the day made me very introspective. Motherhood is such a joy and challenge at the same time. So if you'll allow me, I'll scatter this post with both pictures of my weekend and my random emotions and thoughts about being a mom.
I broke this baby in (my amazing mother's day gift!) I do love to bake and make goodies so I know I'll spend lots of time with it... Some of you may picture me blissfully baking, cfafting, and blogging from my immaculate house while the kids play sweetly together. It isn't exactly like that...
Most of the time before the peanut butter pie is done I've dealt with a couple of melt-downs, cleaned up a couple of spills, and debated whether or not I should have let the kids help me in the first place or should I have taken up my precious nap time to create my masterpiece? Being a mom is messy! I've touched on that before. When I was younger I would imagine I was on a cooking show while I cooked (you can giggle, but come on you know you do this!) Not anymore...now my kitchen usually doesn't look anything even close to Rachael Ray's!
But the result is (almost) perfectly fine. There may have been tears along the way, but you would never know if when you see the end result. Much of life is like that. Struggle and triumph go hand and hand. Yes, it may be dramatic to call my chocolate dipped strawberries a triumph but if you're a mom I think you will understand what I'm trying to say.
For the most part...life is hard, and being a mom is no different. But always,
always there are moments of bliss. Those moments when you stop to put some fresh flowers in a vase, sip on something sweet to drink, find yourself in the embrace of someone you love, watch your children laugh and dance, or simply enjoy a good meal with your family. (Props to Craig who cooked ALL of the food you are about to see!)
It doesn't get much better! I love time with family. There are moments of bliss when you give something to someone else. I am a gifts person...I like to share what I have though often it isn't much. I find that when I focus on what I can do for others I am much more fulfilled. Its easy to lose sight of that though. These pottery barn glasses were a mother's day gift for my mom. Aren't they pretty?
In addition to good fellowship and a good meal, my Dad helped me with a project I've been wanting to do since Christmas. (Craig and I are seriously under-equipped in tool department!)
My mom and sister helped me scour for the vintage camera...it will serve as a reminder to me that I am blessed enough to do something I love and call it a job! It isn't easy. As you may have noticed from my lack of blog posts, my new role as photographer is
time consuming. But I love it! Sometimes when I edit and post a picture and someone tells me how much it means to them or how they love it I have one of those moments of bliss. Being a mom, wife, working part time, and now being a small business owner can sometimes make me crazy. I am striving to maintain balance and it is not easy. As most mom's do I put pressure on myself, guilt myself, worry and wonder about how I am impacting my children.
So today we took time away from my long to-do list to do something special that my kids enjoy. We simply went to the field down behind our subdivision to feed the ponies some apples. It wasn't anything monumental. It didn't require planning or take up much of our time. You should have seen their faces though. And there it was...one of those moments of bliss. You know what? I'm
not super-mom. (I'm pretty sure there is no such thing.) We aren't a perfect family. My house isn't perfect. Sometimes I throw my desserts away! But through it all, there are just enough blissful moments to make it
all so worth it.
