Why I DO Like Being A Momma

Today is my Mom's birthday! So to continue with the theme of my last post, I can still incorporate Mother's Day to honor my Mom on her birthday. Right? Makes total sense to me. :)

I have had so many thoughts recently of how I'm being the Mom that my Mom was when I was little. She let my sister and I play outside in the water and mud, she built us outside play houses complete with wallpaper, and showed us how to space green bean seeds when planting garden. She let us craft and create and taught me how to sew. Now, it's me, teaching Natasha all those things. I'm the Momma collecting my little girl after Sunday School, with her little craft and papers with her name on each piece. Just like the take-home papers I have saved from when I was 3. It's all quite nostalgic to me. (I've used that word now for the second blog post in a row! Gracious.)

I remember making play dough with my Mom. And her reading lots of books. She made us a play house under the dining room table, and while we played house underneath, she used the top for her own projects. (It just so happens that's the current project for me right now: a card table play house.) Instead of me waiting impatiently for Mom to finish sewing whatever she was sewing so we could wear or play with it, it's my daughter doing it to me now. Natasha thinks of something she'd like (yesterday it was ballet shoes), and instantly asks, "Mommy, can you make me _______?" She must have a more optimistic view of my sewing speediness...

All this mother-daughter fun might seems so easy and lighthearted. And I really do love doing all this for my little girl, and we do have a lot of fun together.

My last post said that I don't like Mother's Day, but that doesn't mean I don't like being a Momma. There hasn't been a day since I became a mom, that I haven't smiled at something my daughter has done. When I think of what makes me happy, it's usually something that involves my little girl.

Mommying IS a blessing.
It IS joyful.
It IS one of the most amazing things in life, ever.
And I love it.
At the same time, it can be frustrating.
It IS hard.

But I am learning, that the two can go hand in hand.
I'm learning, albeit slowly, to look past the here and now and realize that stages don't last forever.
That in the long run, I really won't be forever telling my girlie to, "Lean over so your peas don't roll on the floor!!!" I am preparing her for her adulthood, where she'll spend a lot of years, and she won't be little forever. I keep telling myself (and telling myself, and telling myself) to simply, r-e-l-a-x.

So just as my Mom probably had to grit her teeth some days when I wanted to "help" her bake, I now ask my daughter Natasha, to bear with me, as I plunge through this thing called mothering.

         {Please forgive me if you hear me mutter under my breath, and complain, 

and get frazzled and lose my patience with you. 

It doesn't mean you're a bother or in the way or a mistake. 

I just forget what is really important sometimes. 

I'm sorry. 

I know I'm not perfect. 

So I'll try to be real for you, and honest.

 Lets just try again, because we serve a God who gives grace freely, 

and loves giving 2nd and 3rd and 4th chances.}

And thanks Mom, for being the Mom who did all that for me. I know I'm a better Mom because of it.

I just re-found this amazing motherhood blog... It is jam packed full of really encouraging posts for moms who feel like they're failing, need a bit of encouragement, and how to find joy in motherhood. It seems like she has a blog post for every woe I've ever moaned or have thought. These two have stuck out to me: Dear In-A-Minute Mom and What If Sometimes You Don't Like it. If you click on any of those links, be prepared to be reading a lot of great stuff for the next while. You might even say, "In a minute..." to your toddler, or maybe instead, just come back when they're asleep. ;)