Mother's Day? Sure...

In a perfect world, children sleep in on Mother's Day. In reality, they sometimes wake up early. They throw tantrums, they refuse to sit in church meetings, they spit up on their mothers. They don't take good naps. Today was a 4:45 a.m. type of day, leading all the way to a cold 7:00pm dinner. It was the sort of day when I victoriously pump my fists in the air once both children are sleeping, the sort of day I'm glad is over and am grateful not to need to do again.

A few of the mothers I knew left their husbands with the kids and went on vacation this weekend. That's an idea I was pining for at a few points today. But, now that they're sleeping (fairly) peacefully [pauses to swaddle Thomas again and sing Virginia one last lullaby], I'm looking at their pictures and counting my blessings.

I'm glad we had no potty accidents today (and even one success!). I'm thankful for my babies. They are wonderful and their smiles improve every day for me. I love to cuddle them, sing to them, read with them and share laughs with them. And I'm grateful for a husband who tried so hard to make it a wonderful, relaxing day of pampering, with whom I get to share the parenting adventure. I am so glad that we're all well and get to be together so much, on the tougher days as well as the easier ones. I'm happy to have a day to reflect on how blessed I am to be a mom, even if that day doesn't always go quite as planned.