Happy Mother's Day

My Mother's Day has been just as any other day thus far. It's only 7am. The house is still quiet. And I have been at the sewing machine for an hour working on a project and mumbling, "why did I ever think I'd finish this?" to myself. I am in my zone, my happy place. I use this time to welcome the world each day. I typically use this blog to post only quilty things, but this post is completely related to quilting, or my lack of quilting...This is about my main impediment to doing more quilting! Motherhood.

I actually got my Mother's Day presents last week, so I don't expect anything like a fancy present or flowers today. They're pretty cute. Check them out...two more kids, kinda. This is over on one of my two family blogs. Here and here.

I checked in on my computer at 5:45 as usual, saw three sweet cards the hubby had the kids draw yesterday, in varying degrees of scrible (younger two). I smiled. Sometimes I still can't believe they let us take these little people home from the hospital. No manuals, no forms, no nothing. Poof - you're a mother.

That's the glamorous side of it that non-parents believe. The adoring parents holding their quiet sleeping baby while the new parents gaze on. With this we sometimes forgot how we got here. The perils of pregnancy, as delightful as they are for some, they are equally as unpleasant and not for the faint hearted for others.

The glamour of having kids...It's the side of motherhood we all still see when our kids are sound asleep, or playing cooperatively together, or whispering sweet "I love you's" in your ear. It's like the joy of showing off that big pregnant belly as though it is a badge of honor. Even though deep inside you need to pee again, and your legs ache. I still crave my 5 minutes of gently tickling Sophie's neck before bedtime so that she will giggle and nestle into my body. She still needs & wants Mama like the boys do not. Not nearly as much of the time anyways.

In my mind, I long for the glamour of motherhood still. I loved the attention of carrying the infant carrier, and the kind words from strangers about my baby. You don't get these with three and four year olds! I loved showing off the big prego belly, decorating the nurseries, and planning what a perfect family we would have.

Motherhood is not overly glamourous now. We are in the "real" stages of motherhood. Little to no glamour some days. That's nothing to be overly sad about, just a fact. We now have kids that throw fits, throw food. Children that smack eachother, and can be sassy. Kids that choose to listen when it suits them. They are still mine, and I do love them. And fortunately, they are relatively good natured and well behaved much of the time.

So on this Mother's Day, I chose to look back to the days when Motherhood was still on a high. In the hours just after each of my babies were born, I could have smiled for days. I probably did :-)

#1
#2
#3

And here they are now...