My Mother’s Day expectations
My Mother’s Day expectations were not too high to have played out in real life. At least I didn’t think they were. All I really wanted was for my kids all to sit with me at church. That did not happen. I also really wanted them to get along all day. As long as Aaron was here that happened. However, he had to go have our van worked on that afternoon. The next thing on my small list of desires for the day was for my kids to keep the house fairly clean. Last but surely not least, I wanted to just relax, and enjoy the day with my family.
Every year I ask for the same things. You would think they would all know by now that I do not want, or need any material things from them. Ultimately, I just want to see them all happy, and enjoying being a family. God gave us each other, and wants us to enjoy, and encourage each other to love and good works. Sometimes it’s hard for siblings to show their love for each other. They are so different, but also so alike in ways. A couple of them are a bit too alike I think. We all see it, but of course they refuse to.
What happened in real life
What happened in real life kind of hurt my feelings for a minute or so, but was still pretty good I think. I got up like normal on a Sunday morning, and started waking children to get their showers. One by one they all got up, and got clean. Meanwhile, myself and Noah were busy putting together flower arrangements for the mothers at church, as well as my mother, and myself. I put a couple of beautiful flowers from our yard in each bathroom, and made an arrangement for the dinning room. Noah did a great job helping me with this.
After the every one else was ready to go, the laundry was going, and the flower arrangements were made, I hurriedly finished getting myself and the baby ready. Off we went to church.
We got there and of course my kids dispersed themselves out, and not even one of them decided to sit with me. Except, of course for Simon, and Grace soon came and stole him form me too. When I got up to hand out the flowers I had a little speech/charge to deliver, but while Noah and I were handling that, Aaron was busy dealing with an unruly kiddo, and accidentally cut me short. I knew he didn’t mean to, but didn’t want make him feel too bad, so I sat down.
A great message and visit with my mom
Aaron preached a great message form Isaiah chapter 5, about as we try to raise our kids for the Lord, there will be opposition, and they will make wrong choices some times. Like when God is trying to lead us a certain way, or teach us a thing we don’t want to learn. Sometimes we, like He, have done everything we can to lead the right way, and provide the right things for success, but our kids still mess up. We don’t just give up. No, we try again. We show grace and mercy. Galatians 5:22-25
When he was done we left church much differently than usual. We normally hang around for some fellowship for a while, but we had work that needed to be done to our van, and plans to do it. We also had plans to go see my mom. When we arrived at her house I knocked at the door and was greeted by Molly. Molly is my mom’s cop dog. She is huge, black, and a bit crazy. She is beautiful, but loud, and did I mention huge? My mom however did not come to the door. Just as I went to open the door and let myself in, she emerged from around the barn and scared the dickens out of me.
I jumped nearly out of my skin. She, of course, found this hilarious. We chatted for a minute, then I gave her the flowers that Noah and I had arranged for her, with a cute little candle I found at Aldi. She hung out with the kids for a few minutes, and we were back on our way.
Sometimes real life doesn’t pan out like the vision in our head
My sweet husband did not want me to have to cook, so he told the kids that they were in charge of lunch, and the clean up afterwards. They handled both tasks well. Once he ate Aaron had just enough time to un out the door to meet his friend at the shop to get the work done on the van. It would’ve been nice to have him home for the day, but it was necessary for him to deal with that. Besides, no matter what he says in jest, he isn’t one of my kids.
My vision for our time after he left was that we would all go into the kitchen and choose a couple of things to bake, and we would joyfully bake together. But sometimes real life doesn’t pan out like the vision in our head. This would prove to be one such time. You see, once I saw Aaron off the kids who had been so sweet and helpful decided that it was much too nice out to stay in and bake. On top of them wanting to go outside and play, the baby decided it was a perfect day to cluster feed.
Rather than get disappointed, or demand that they stay in, and spend the day sitting and waiting to see if Simon would ever stop eating or not, I let them go have fun. There were a few times Simon let me put him down, and I would go out with them. They were short lived, but fun, and totally worth it.
I still enjoyed my kids even though it was not exactly how I planned
After a couple of hours the kids came in and asked if we could watch a movie together. It wasn’t exactly the baking I had planned to do. It was also not productive really. I’m not one to just sit, but I was constantly nursing the baby, and that’s productive. So, I sat. We watched a movie instead of working. I still enjoyed my kids even though it was not exactly how I planned, it was perfect. They were happy, and so was I. Quality time with the kids that isn’t just work and chores is very important to me. Even if it means nothing seems to be getting done. Some of the most important things we do wit our kids evolves just sitting, doing “nothing”.
Once the movie was over, and conversation ended they all ran back outside. Soon after they left me again sitting with Simon, Aaron came in and ordered pizza. I never cooked a thing all day. It was weird! Weird but nice. We ate dinner together, as we do every night, then we watched another movie, had family devotion time, and went to bed. It was a great day indeed. The kids had fun, we got in some good quality time together, and we enjoyed each others company. I call that a win.
