When I think of Mother's Day, I think of flowers, homemade cards, and I love you's. There are pictures of moms and kids on all the social networking sites. For one day, motherhood seems picture perfect.
But then real life happens. Not even a week later, Julie wakes up at 1am projectile vomiting. I have to do not one, but two loads of laundry in the middle of the night. My pants were soaked. Julie's hair was covered in it. (How?!) And so I have to give her a bath. With her crying (and let's face it-maybe me too!) it's a wonder that Jax and Justin sleep soundly with all the commotion. After that is all done and she is cleaned up, she asks me in a pitiful voice to sleep on her bedroom floor in case she needs me. And I do because I want to keep my eye on her. Bonus: her room is closer to the washer and dryer....
And then when I do wake up in the morning and hop in the shower, I see that I had throw up all on my pajama shirt that I didn't notice at 1am. Nice. I SLEPT IN my kids throw up all night long. Gross.
Or say you are working on a Pinterest inspired project outside and Jax and Julie find the paint that you were using. And the paintbrush that had gone missing all day long. I knew Julie has swiped it earlier in the day, but of course she had no recollection of that. Anywho-those kids thought it would be great to paint the driveway and my landscaping rocks. And I do think they were a little surprised to see that I was NOT HAPPY that there was paint everywhere. Including their nice clothes. I thought Jax's jeans were a goner. They were brand new and he had only worn them a couple of times. But thanks to Pinterest I found that a lot of rubbing alcohol and light scrubbing with a toothbrush got it all out. Whew. The paint on the driveway came off as well. The paint on the rocks? Not so much. I like to think they are "unique" now.
And that's motherhood. It's messy, fun, exhausting, frustrating, and joyful. I get slobbery kisses from Julie as she wraps her arms around me and tells me, "I never let you go." Jax gives me spontaneous hugs (when no one is looking!) and when I give him a kiss goodnight he always says, "Ew!" and wipes it off. Which makes me give him more kisses. He may act like it's gross, but he secretly enjoys it. I think.
It's many dinners of spaghetti, chicken nougats or mac and cheese. Watching Frozen for the umpteenth time or singing along to "Let it go" in the car. And then realizing Julie is NOT in the car and I've just enjoyed all the Frozen songs by myself.
But mostly, motherhood teaches me that I don't have it all together and that daily I need to rely on Jesus. A verse that gives me a great illustration of this...
As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, LIKE A MOTHER CARING FOR HER LITTLE CHILDREN. 1 Thessalonians 2:7