A Good Mom

When I was a little girl I wanted to grow up to be a mama.  This is what my parents tell me... apparently when people would ask "what do you want to be when you grow up?", I would respond, "a mommy!"  In high school I took Home Economics and Child Development classes because I knew they would teach me some things about what I wanted to do later in life.  

I become a mommy relatively early in life... I got married right out of high school, and became pregnant with my first little blessing just a few months after.

Being a mommy has been the most wonderful, trying, frustrating, fulfilling, overwhelming, and magical thing to ever happen to me.

Sometimes I walk into my children's room while they are sleeping and I just thank God out loud for their lives... I can't believe that He entrusted me to take care of these precious souls until He calls them home.  

I LOVE being a mom.  I love hosting sleepovers, entertaining 15 crazy teenagers for dinner at once, running back and forth across town for activities, screaming til my throat hurts at sporting events, shopping for dances and birthday parties... and these days, i've come to absolutely LOVE packing my babies school lunches.

This year, my kiddos attend a private Christian school.  So for the first time, they are consistently bringing lunch from home.  I have a routine in place by now... I wake up, do my morning devotionals, pray, wake up all the kiddos and begin ironing uniforms, and re-assuring the teens that every hair is perfectly moussed and in place, helping locate missing shoes... and then I get to pack each of their lunches!

As I do this, I pray over each of their days... each one of my babies is totally different and they like completely different things in their lunch bags... I pick out different treats, and put together their main entree, and I write little love notes and tuck them away in their bags for them to find during their meal...  little did I know when I began doing that, it would turn out to be the highlight of their day!

My little Roo looks for that note every single day... he has kept every single one since school started and he says it makes his heart smile when he reads them.

A couple weeks ago, as I  was in the kitchen preparing lunches, the most marvelous feeling came over me and I blurted out loud "gosh this makes me feel like a real mom, like a good mom."  And it does...

Now this isn't a dig at mom's who don't do home lunches, or mom's who aren't stay at home mama's... this is just something that was in my heart- just for me...

My life is beautiful.  It is chaotic, and full and on the go and so incredibly blessed.

Thank you Jesus for the blessing of being a mommy.