Motherhood

I was reading a few other blogs today and I realized how "perfect" everyone's life can seem when just a few tidbits are recorded here and there.  I am not sure how my blog comes across, but those who know me well, hopefully know that my life is far from fairy-tale!  I simply use my blog to record some of my favorite memories as kind of a scrapbook to look back on in years to come.

My blog is also a way for me to focus on the good in my life when other things seem to be falling apart.  Unfortunately I am not a very sentimental person.  I wish I was, really.  I seem to skip over some of those precious moments that I know I will miss in the future.  I have to make a conscience effort to see those small moments in each day and not just shift in survival mode.  Because like every mother, we have good days and we have bad days.  There are days when I can't wait for Paul to come home because I am so done with the kids that day.  There are days where there is mess after mess after mess and I am overwhelmed with trying to get everything in order.  There are sibling fights, arguing over having to do schoolwork, ungratefulness, fighting to get them to clean up, and so on and so on.  But I don't want to focus on those difficult moments.  I don't need to remind myself that parenting is hard, but I do need help sometimes remembering the good.

I admit I am in a unique stage of motherhood right now though.  I kind of feel like I am living on easy street (physically) compared to the last few years.  I don't have an infant right now (at least not for the next 4 months or so!), I don't have any in diapers at the moment (Hallelujah!), my girls play very well together (at least half the time ;), and they are all fairly independent.  I also have a few who are old enough to help now with things like: buckling Ella, doing kitchen chores, carrying in groceries, getting themselves dressed, etc.  It is such a change from those days when I had only toddlers and babies and it was all on me.  I was often that mother in the checkout line with a cart full of groceries and screaming children.  Now I am that mother with four little girls running up and down aisles, pulling things off the shelves ;)

But just like every phase of parenthood, I know this phase will pass, so I am trying to savor every moment of this little dose of "freedom" before little boy Klinker arrives and I am back at square one!

Parenthood is a journey at every stage and it's something we are all constantly trying to figure out.  I do love being a mother and wouldn't trade my time with my children for anything.  I just pray that I can be the best mother I can be each day and help my children get to Heaven.

“We find dignity in our work, in raising a family, in participating in the life of the Father’s creation.”                                                          -Leonard Foley