Mom Stuff on Mom's Day

My mantra the last little while has been, there aren't enough hours in the day.  Just as soon as I check a few things off the list there are just as many things that still need to be done, and there's never enough time. I've come to know that I do like being busy, but there's busy and then there's ridiculous. My evaluation at school is almost finished - at least my part is finished, well, except that I need to write my annual learning plan, but that shouldn't take too long, and there's still another meeting with admin, but the bulk of the work is done. Now the house, always the children, and then things like the blog which have been wildly abandoned, but of course there's also the day to day teaching, the report cards, the concert, the mothering, the laundry and finding moments to stare out the window at pretty yellow birds in the tree. So many distractions, so little time.

I love being a mother, the challenge, the growth, the stretching of my capacities. I love reading with the girls, I love watching them play - or at least listening to them play sweetly together. I love watching my sweet husband be a good dad, loving them like no one else ever can. I'm looking forward to the summer of spending time doing things together. I hope I can slow down and really be with them - I feel the lack of that in my life right now. I'm tired of being tired... BUT!

But when I start to go down that path I stop myself and I remember to be grateful, grateful for the noise and the mess and the chaos and the love in my life of my three little girls, because really, what's the alternative? I'm grateful for the health of my children, that they are alive and well, that they were born to me, that I am here to wake up each day with them, because really, what's the alternative?

There will never be enough hours in the day, and hopefully I will get better at choosing what to fill my hours with, and it will get easier to know that there is a time and a season for things in life. Being a mom is hard, and although that is usually the beginning place of my thoughts, it is not the end.  Out of hard things come the best things and I am grateful, so eternally grateful to be a mother to Kate, and to Alice and to Fiona. And grateful to my partner who supports me in all of my mothering, Ken you make me feel valued as a mother every day!