Mother's Day

I love being a mom, It's the best thing ever. It has been my life long dream, and the only thing i ever knew I wanted to do with my life. Thanks to a wonderful husband my dream has come true and I couldn't be happier. With being a mom I have come to realize just how amazing my own mother was. It's hard work. I have days where I ask myself "Why?" I have days where I am so overwhelmed I start to ask well "What if?" At the end of the day there is an adorably sweet little boy who I get to cuddle with as he goes to bed and I realize just how wonderful my life is. It's hard to keep that perspective with the piles of dirty dishes and laundry, the To Do lists that are never checked off, and none of it is made any simpler with the whining and dirty diapers that still need to be changed. It can be so easy to complain and lose patience and I know I need a lot of practice in those areas to be a better mom.

Today I have gained two "words of wisdom" in regards to motherhood. A sister in our ward gave a talk and one phrase that stuck out to me was "a dab of mean". She had listed all the perfect things mom can be but then added at the end that with all those wonderful things there is a "dab of mean". In no way to I take this to mean I can have a "dab of mean" and it's ok, but throughout this journey of motherhood I cannot be perfect. As I try to teach my children, and guide them through this life there will be resistance. There will be times when I am forced to show "tough love" as I try to guide them through this life. It won't mean I am a bad mom, or that I am doing somethign wrong.

The other "word od wisdom" came attached to a candy bar, It was a quote that I had never seen before, but helps me to put in perspective all the challenges and sacrifices of motherhood. It has made me think of the goals I would like to set for myself in the years to come as I try and raise my children.

 "I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived."

 — Marjorie Pay Hinckley

I love being a mother. I is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I am grateful for a husband who loves and supports me and helps me in anyway he can. He motivates me to work harder knowing the sacrifices he makes for our family everyday.

I am grateful for the mothers in my life who have shown me such great love. my own mother has put up with a lot thanks to me and I wish there was a way I could wipe out all the bad and leave only the good. I will look back on those memories and learn from her example when dealing with my own children. I have a wonderful mother-in-law who has shown such great love to me and treated me as one of her own. I am lucky to have these two great women in my life to look to as examples of what I can hope to be.

Happy Mother's day.