It seems like it's always Sunday nights when, after I've enjoyed the day with my family, I am overwhelmed with the
joy I feel as a mom. With Mother's Day being last week, I've been feeling so blessed to have the opportunity to be a Mommy.
5 years ago, I held my 3 month old baby on my first Mother's Day. I remember feeling so fulfilled and happy to be able to celebrate Mother's Day AS a Mom. 4 years ago, when Tyler was 1, I found out I was pregnant with Jackson. It was Mother's Day morning and I'm pretty sure I cried through church that day! (tears of happiness, of course!)
And this year, Mother's Day was May 13-- exactly 3 months from the day I will get to meet our baby girl.
I was just released from my calling in Young Women's as Laurel Advisor. I had been feeling like that calling had the perfect amount of responsibility for me, and a great opportunity to get away on Wednesday nights :) and be in a different part of the building on Sundays!
Jeff was in Primary so I always knew my boys would be happy in there. But recently he was called to Young Men's, and they especially needed him on Wednesday nights.
But lately I have been feeling like I wish I knew what the boys were learning about in Primary and feeling like they needed me there. I was called as Primary Chorister! A calling I had right after Jeff and I were married, before we had kids and before I had this much confidence working with children. I still feel like I am so not musical, but I am so happy to be involved in my boy's activities and learning again... I get to practice on them throughout the week and teach my children at the same time- priceless!
Some of the things that as a MOM I've been grateful for lately:
-sponge bob and spiderman bandaids. How did moms convince their kids to wear bandaids when they were blank?
-calamine lotion and vaccines. Tyler had a mild case of chicken pox this week, and thanks to the vaccine and some calamine lotion, it never got very bad. I think the hardest thing for both of us was that we had to stay in the house. We are all looking forward to preschool, tiny tots and gymnastics this week!! (and we have our fingers crossed Jackson won't get it in 20 days)
-finger prints on the windows and dirt rings in the tub. Seriously! I saw a sign the other day that said,
"Excuse the mess, my children are making memories." I want to be that kind of a mom. A mom that doesn't follow her kids around with clorox wipes. This makes me laugh (or squirm) a little because if you come over unannounced you will see that my house turns into a disaster rather quickly! Pretty sure no one in the world will peg me as a
neat freak.
-having three pairs of toy story underwear in my purse. It always makes me smile as I am rummaging through the bag to find my keys, phone, sunglasses or library card.
-seeing Jackson's favorite toys lovingly placed there by his big brother while he naps. I wish I took a picture when I saw it, but imagine a sleeping 3 year old next to a pile of trios, legos, spiderman, and robin from his 5 year old hero.
-memorizing Are you My Mother so that we can still read it when it is lost under a bed and mommy is too fat to search for it. enough said :)
-tackling a child to give them a hug just because. This is even more fun when one of them is mid-sentence. Although I have learned it is best NOT to do it when Jackson is talking about Batman.
This week has been one of the most overwhelming, because due to the pox, we were home together all week without very many outings. In fact I called my mom a couple times and said, "we need to get out!" But I noticed
most of my most joyous moments happen within the walls of my home! I am so blessed to be called mommy!
Tyler's preschool does an "It's a Small World" theme, so each classroom gets to study a country. Tyler's class was Kenya, which was perfect since all his favorite animals are African safari animals!! But, like the Halloween program, Tyler was sick the day of the open house so we had to miss it (yes, I am still sad about missing both of those events!). They learned songs and had a program and walked through the classroom to see all their projects.
