On being a mother...

A few things I like about being a mother:

• Kids are by far the best excuse for everything from thunder-thighs to a messy house (both of which are really only due to my own laziness).
• Hugs and kisses. Sounds so cliched but you know, not everyone gets them in as constant, fervent and genuine supply. Physical affection is something many people in the world don't experience very often.
• Realizing that you are teaching them something important and they are actually listening (!)
• Getting to watch Disney and Nick. And listen to the Highschool Musical soundtrack in the car.
• Halloween and Easter and Christmas and Valentine's Day and April Fool's Day...they all take on a totally different level of excitement.
• Watching them sleep.
• Watching them being kind and tender with each other.
• Listening to my kids chatting to each other when they don't know I'm there.
• Watching my husband be a father.
• Thinking of things that you would like to blow their mind with (a puppy, a trip to Australia, Disney, South Africa...) and how fun that would be.
• I can still cuddle and convince their problems away
• Feeling a tense or distraught little body relax in my arms
• My kids take me seriously. I like that. Not everyone does. (Imagine?!)
• Watching my kids become who they are going to be. It is the most fascinating process imaginable.
• Waking up to a warm soft sleepy baby face breathing right into mine.
• Watching their determination on the soccer field. I have yet to see any of them give less then their all.
• Reading something they have written
• Hanging up their original artwork on the fridge
• Finding their love notes to me
• Watching their faces in rapt entrancement over something
• Watching them laugh and shriek with excitement
• Making them giggle by being goofy. Nobody else appreciates goofy the same way.
• When kids at the school say "Hi Ben/Gabe/Caroline's mom!!"
• Knowing that simply by virtue of being a mom, I have the power to change the world.
  

The other day I was feeling irritated and stressed. It was later in the evening then I wanted it to be with four unbathed kids in the car on the way home from the soccer. I discovered that my van was running on fumes and I started muttering darkly about that. Suddenly out of nowhere a thought popped into my mind, "Oh my goodness! I'm a wife! I'm a mom!This is really happening. How cool!"

As a teen or a child I would imagine how it would be all grown up with a family on far off day, and when I would imagine it even being stressed and too busy, seemed exciting and fun. I would be the mom, I would be all grown up, it would be my life to be in charge of. In that running on empty van that night I realized that I was there. I was the soccer mom, driving my van full of 4 kids who needed to go home and be bathed and put to bed and kissed goodnight. I had arrived! How cool was this? I had many lofty aspirations as a young girl, a big career, changing the world, but my loftiest by far (I realize now) was being a mom. And now I am. How about that?

Um yes, I do, I do know this has been the case for more then a decade, but sometimes you really get so caught up in the run of the mill that you don't stand back and gasp at the amazing coolness of a dream becoming reality.

Here's to more standing back and gasping. Being a mom is cool. Being a mom to my kids-more cool then I could ever have imagined.

A few things I like about my mother:

• Life is a celebration
• She is not a low reactor to good news (low reactors disappoint and confuse me)
• She is wildly creative
• She is funny
• Her faith is unshakable, come what may. (And trust me, may has come)
• She is affectionate physically and emotionally
• She cares about how she looks, but she is not silly and boring about it
• She is generous with time, things, energy and praise
• She can see the silver lining in any situation, without being an irritating Pollyanna about it.
• She is open and genuine and she isn't afraid to say what everyone is thinking when it needs to be said.
• Everyone is her friend. Whether she knows them or not.
• She makes a personal connection with every person she meets (which is soooo irritating when you are with her, and in a hurry, but I bet it totally makes the day of the person she is connecting with)

Thinking also of my lovely granny today and of my wonderful mother-in-law. What an amazing son she raised. No mom could possibly be prouder. I owe her so much. I hope they are both feeling the love in heaven today.

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