Mother's Day Thoughts

I hope that you all had a Happy Mother's Day yesterday.  I had a crazy, busy, hectic, jam packed day that was anything but relaxing, but at the same time was reflective of my life at this time, in this season.  Although it was busy, it was full of love.  

Brian and the kids made me breakfast in bed (a tradition in our home) and they all made me cards and gave me their home made gifts and flowers.  Then, the race was on to get everyone showered and dressed and off to church so that Bri & I could teach.   It is always a challenge with everyone getting dressed on Sunday mornings...."brush your teeth"......"no that doesn't match,".... "that shirt is too small,"...."brush your teeth"...."comb your hair"..... "hurry up, we're all waiting for you"...."please, for the last time, go brush your teeth"..."no, I don't know where your Bible is"...etc. We hustled out the door and arrived at church 5 minutes before service started. Normally, that would be fine, but when we're teaching, I like to be early so that we can see the stage, see the props and do a run through.  I was a little stressed at cutting it so close. (Okay, I was A LOT stressed....not a little stressed.)  We had just enough time to read through our scripts, which seemed to have ONE MILLION words this week.  We huddled in the closet and prayed for God to give us the words to get us through the lesson.  The next 30 minutes of teaching were exactly the opposite of the prior 30 minutes.  The lesson was great. Brian and I had a lot of fun with it. We managed to say about 900,000 of the words and ad lib the rest.  We have been teaching together for the past 5 years and I have to say, that we both really enjoy doing it together.  It is one of the few times that the two of us are together without our own kids, and one of the few times we are focusing on someone else, other than ourselves or our own kids.  It is one of the few times we get to laugh with each other over silly things.  It is one of the few times we see glimpses of the people we used to be before we got overwhelmed with our busy life and kids.  Afterwards, we sat in the service and as I listened to our Pastor Joe, I also thought about why it is that we cause ourselves so much stress.  I need to do a better job at finding balance.

We left church and Bri & 2 kids went to his parents, so that he could see his Mom for a little while. I took Charlie home to change and then drop him off at his baseball game an hour early for practice.  Then, I came back and picked up Brian and the two of us went to Charlie's game. He had been scheduled to have a double header, but thankfully the second game was cancelled due to rain.  His team won, for the first time all season, so that was exciting!  The boys each gave their Moms a long stemmed red rose for Mother's Day...it was very sweet.   I didn't get the chance to see my own Mom, but I did get to talk to her on the phone for a few minutes. Straight from the game, we headed back to Bri's parents where we ate some leftover food, visited for a couple of hours and then came home.  I wasn't feeling well and ended up curling up in front of the fireplace at 7:30PM when we got home and fell asleep.  Brian put the kids to bed and helped me get to bed around 10PM.

Today, I am sick.  

It is probably just a bad cold or maybe the flu, but I am sick. My head hurts, my ears, nose and throat all hurt.  I am tired.  I feel like I've been hit by a truck. I slept until 7:15AM and felt like I could've just stayed in bed.  I would have, but it was pouring down rain, so I wanted to drive the boys to the bus stop.  I seriously contemplated staying in my pajamas since nobody would see me, but for their sakes I changed.

Thankfully, I could climb back into bed as soon as I returned, which I did.  Since I awoke again, I have had the chance to just sit and think.  I am in my bed with the lights out.   It is still raining outside.  The TV and radio are off, the kids are at school, Brian is at work and it is quiet.  I've been thinking how rare it is that I am here just "being" me. It seems that most of the time I am so busy "doing" that I forget to just "be."  We go, go, go and the days fly by.  Even when I am here, I am cleaning, or doing laundry, going to this or that meeting or appointment, or doing one of the million other things on my never ending "to do" list.  Today, although I feel awful, I've had the gift of time to sit and think.

I am so thankful for my kids.  It is a miracle that all 3 are healthy.  I am thankful that I have been given the gift of being their Mom.  Many times I feel so inadequate for the job.   I am thankful for Brian.  I am thankful that he is my partner on this crazy journey.  I am thankful that he is so grounded and that he ALWAYS loves me...even at times when I should be unlovable. I am thankful that we have each other and are still together after all of these years.   I am thankful for our parents and our brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.  I love them all more than they know.  I am blessed and honored to be part of their lives. I am thankful for our many aunts and uncles, cousins and their kids.  I am thankful for my friends, both old and new.

I am thankful for God.  I am thankful for His love and grace.  I am thankful that I have another day, another chance to try to learn and grow, and be a better person.

Tomorrow, I will probably be feeling fine. I'll be up and around and back to my normal, crazy routine but I hope I am able to remember in the midst of it all to take time to just "be".