Monday, May 13, 2013

The day after Mother’s Day

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Motherhood can be hard, but the joys that come with it are stronger. 

Joy’s strength can carry Struggle’s weight.  And win every time.

I think motherhood is so hard to describe sometimes. That’s why, today, I want to share words about motherhood from a mom and gifted writer, whom I admire, Lisa-Jo Baker, who writes in her blog to encourage women and moms to keep on being… being all that God created us to be.  

These words are an encouraging gift to me from God through her writing that I want to post this beautiful day-after-Mother’s-Day…and I hope it will bring simply joys to your mind of your mother and being a mother.

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I am stretched and tired and fearful.
I am wild and brave and broken.
My closet has a sense of humor and clothes in every size…

I have rocked restless babes, cut baby curls, snipped fingernails and served a thousand thousand bowls of Cheerios.

I can build a blanket fort, pry splinters out of fingers, and sharp words out of young hearts.

I have lost it, yelled it, fought it, cried it and apologized it all before 9am.

I have fingerpainted, caffeinated, and run out of explanations for a line of why questions that stretches around the living room, out the front door and around the block...

I have been woken up, shaken up, thrown up, loved up, and shut up. I have never quite, completely, ever given up.

Love sleeps in my bed. Curiosity eats at my table. Delight runs laps around my back yard. Exhaustion is a faithful friend. But so is grace.

If I started tonight and counted backwards all the gifts of the past {thirteen} and a half years of two {kids} I would still be counting when their grandchildren were standing tippy toes with noses pressed against these smudged windows.

So I count dimples instead.

And piles of stray socks and jeans with knees missing and shoes that only fit for a few months and hair cuts and loose teeth and how many times I look at them and say with the disbelief of the proud, “I can’t believe how much you’ve grown!”

I am overwhelmed, infatuated, love struck and completely unhinged. Especially on the nights they bring in wild flowers and all the ever-loving mud in the world.

I am full and fulfilled.
I am older and comfortable in my skin.
I am about the work of raising tiny humans.
I am out of my mind and in my calling and desperate for five minutes alone and a lifetime together.

I see cherry blossom fireworks when two brothers enter school and friendship and new worlds together. Right there, just an outdoor, black top, basketball court away from me.

I want to stop time, tame my fears, bottle their dreams, live a hundred summers of dripping, sticky, caramel ice cream. And in between I hang onto my faith, my temper, and my sense of humor with my fingernails.

These are the good days, the glory days, the slow-as-molasses days. These are the fast years, the wonder years, the how-do-I-find-words years.

But we do. They usually start with “help” and end with “thank you” and the middle?

The middle is a thick layer of one syllable wonder sometimes whispered, often shouted, always answered.

The middle is me. The middle is you. The middle is just, “mom.”

 

 

Continuing to count

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#1391  our son’s school soccer team coach who’s a Christ follower and his soon-to-be-bride

#1392  the unique and encouraging words coach gave to our son and each player on the team.  Way to go with your Hustle Award!

#1393  Psalm 119:38  “Fullfill your promise to your servant…”

#1394  the worker at Target who gave me a free drink just.because.

#1395  two hours that flew by just listening

#1396  hard eucharisteo…not knowing the right words to say…but God has reason for that?

#1397  encouraging someone to write

#1398  gift waited for…still waiting to see

#1399  baby birds in birdhouse beside the window now chirping and calling for their mama

#1400  the grand opening of the first roses

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#1401  the smell of spring

#1402  spending time with Jesus outside on the porch for the first time this spring.

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#1403  spending time with my mother, sister, children and family Mother’s Day weekend

#1404  hearing and watching mom play the organ.

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#1405  my gifts…lantana, massage, tile, cards…and Cook Out milkshake!

#1406  our first peony in our yard that’s been passed on for generations in my husband’s family

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#1407  my great-aunt’s 89th birthday

#1408  meeting a woman at church who’s 99 years young

3 comments:

  1. Beautiful Beth! Wonderful family.

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    1. Thank you, Karen! Yours is too! I miss you all and I've enjoyed reading your blog, too, friend! It looks like God is alive in you!!!

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