Just thinking...

Don't let the words, "just thinking" worry you. (What do you think Tymber is thinking here?)

I have just been reflecting over the last several days about my life, my family, our destiny together.

It has been a long time since I have taken the time to write down some things I want my children to know and always remember long after I am gone.

I have been busy with loading pictures of wonderful family vacations, fun times with the youth of our church this summer, birthday celebrations, and so much more, but not-so-much the stuff that is in my heart.

Like how I felt on that family vacation when a huge crater in my heart was healed when an outpouring of forgiveness happened.

Or how I felt when I watched A.J. finally take that field as a Varsity quarterback for his State winning team.

Or how excited I am for Madie to have the opportunity to show how beautiful she is, inside and out, on her Homecoming Court.

Or how I feel every morning when Annie and Tymber finally find me with their sleepy eyes and shy smiles.

These are the moments I never want to forget.

Motherhood is a privilege.

It is.

Don't let anyone ever allow the complaints, the trials, the hard work, the tears of frustration to override the honor that it is to be a Mother.

I have been a mother now for almost 17 years.  Actually, 17 years and 7 months, because the day I saw those two lines on that test all those years ago, my dream of being a mother began.

There have been so many days since then.  Some filled with amazing triumph, and others, deep dark despair.

But I never took being a mother for granted.

I think that just may be the trick.

I love seeing those messy chocolate faces if they are accompanied by a smile that shows a mouth full of baby teeth.

I love waking up to a bed full of little girls whose faces are made of some of the softest skin I have ever seen.

I am a realist too.

I don't like having to clean up that chocolate mess.  Especially, if it was consumed in the car seat, that is completely impossible to take apart and reassemble after washing.

But who can really be mad when the chocolate came from a sister who shared her sweet reward with her baby sister?

I don't like not sleeping well, because I am surrounded by little girls who bodies don't believe on sleeping with their head on the soft down pillow and their feet squarely at the bottom of the bed, but rather the diagonal position, or better yet, the horizontal sleep.

But who can really be upset when those sleeping beauties are tucked in next to the man I love who helped me create this amazing life?

I just wanted to take this random Wednesday, and thank my Heavenly Father for the good and the bad.

The days when everything seems to be falling apart, the parenting job I work so hard at seems to be failing miserably, and my husband is sewing his own collar button on an old shirt, because I forgot to pick up the dry cleaning on Saturday days.

All the way to the good days, where the older kids get up on time, have great attitudes, and are happy.

Today is one of those days.  Happy children, loving husband, and a very, very blessed Mother.