Double Duty

Mother's Day always makes me reflect on the great responsibility and privilege of raising our precious children. As my family pampered me with meals and gifts, I felt my heart swell up with how blessed I am to get to soak them in every day. I adore them.

A dear aunt of mine (who is really Troy's aunt but I claim as my own) wrote some inspiring words about motherhood matters a few years ago. She has five mostly grown children and a whole lot of perspective on mothering. I have often kept her words in the forefront of my mind as I've battled through my own trenches of motherhood.

"As a young mother with children tugging at me and needing my attention, I often longed for the day when I could really “get something done.” Now, those years of caring for little ones are past, and I actually spend most days alone with that coveted time to get things done. 

Yes, now I can shop without having to also load children in and out of car seats along with the groceries. Now I can often bake without having to let others have a turn stirring, and now I sometimes can clean without having to teach others how to stick to an unpleasant job. 

But the irony is that now I probably spend the same amount of time, or more, doing those things. And to be honest, the accomplishments feel just a little hollow at times because I’m not doing double duty. Before, I somehow managed to run the house while nurturing little ones. Without nurturing being the larger portion of my day’s ingredients, somehow at the end of the day my to-do list seems just a little less fulfilling and meaningful. Before, my demands were double but so were my rewards.

May young mothers who are struggling to manage a home and family also manage to recognize the double portion of love, satisfaction, and meaning that is rightfully theirs."

I try to remember these words from a wise mother who was in my shoes whenever I find myself longing for "me time." Doing double duty is no doubt a tough job. But the rewards of soaking up moments with our children are among the greatest. I am trying my best to recognize the double portion of love, satisfaction, and meaning that comes with the noble task of mothering.

All About Mom

Blake answered some questions about me in a questionnaire they worked on in Primary. I thought his responses were pretty funny.

How do I show my mom I love her?

Give her kisses and hugs and make cookies.

My favorite thing to do with my mom is:

Play toys and watch movies.

How old is my mom?

15

Her favorite food is:

Toast and peaches.

If she has extra time, she likes to:

Play in the sandbox.

When my mom grows up, she wants to be a:

When is she gonna grow up?

What my mom loves most is:

The lawn mower.

He's got me nailed. I always play in the sandbox in my free time and I really love our lawn mower more than anything. Apparently I'm not grown-up yet, which makes sense since he thinks I am 15. I wouldn't say that toast and peaches are my favorite foods, but at least he didn't say Cadbury Eggs. That means that I have been sneaking them well enough for him not to notice.

I love three year olds. Blake showered me with a sweet handmade card along with the humorous connotations.

Happy Mother's Day!

Children's Museum

We have an amazing children's museum in our city. We finally went to check it out thanks to some passes from my friend. I loved all of the extra colorful touches that were found near the entrance.

Blake was on cloud nine and had a deer-in-the-headlights look on his face the entire time as he checked out all of the details.

Nash was not very thrilled about the bracelet they put around his wrist.

He got over it quickly when he spotted the balls.

There were some serious ball tunnels and shooting contraptions.

Nash figured out how to open the case where the balls were suctioned and he wanted to do it over and over.

The highlight of our visit was the intricate water table. I tried to get Blake to go to a special kindermusik class they were offering, but he wanted nothing to do with instruments and dancing. I don't blame him; there was too much playing to do.

I loved how there were pretend play costumes to coordinate with the hands-on areas.

The pretend grocery store was also a hit. What kid wouldn't love pushing around his own shopping cart and checking out at the end?

Our final stop was the helicopter exhibit.

The museum far exceeded my expectations. Great fun, great day.

Welcome May

You have got to be kidding me.

It's a good thing we spent the whole weekend indoors watching the Royal Wedding. My mom and I soaked up every evening with pre-wedding coverage during the week leading up to the big event. We recorded about 20 hours of live broadcasting from different stations on the big day. We woke up early and immediately tuned in to catch anticipated glances of the bride's dress. We couldn't pull ourselves away from the coverage even for a moment, so we made the boys have a picnic breakfast in front of the tv. 

I think we successfully memorized every detail regarding Kate & Will's wedding. Now that our eyes aren't glued on the screen, maybe we'll get our lives back. But we are having some serious Royal Wedding withdrawals. And since this winter is apparently never going to end, I wish we could do it all over again.

After Party

My favorite part of Easter weekend was our after party. My parents were in town to join us for our celebrations and things got pretty exciting after we put the boys to bed.

It began when we were sitting around the dining room table emptying out plastic eggs full of candy. We were also dividing up dollar bills from the adult egg hunt that we insist on doing year after year. Maybe when we hit 30 or so, our parents will stop that tradition, but until then, we still give them puppy dog eyes when they suggest taking the competitive adult egg hunt away. 

Dividing up the cash led to some pretty riveting musical renditions. Every time someone was asked what was in the egg they were opening, if they responded "cash," it naturally led to reciting the full version of "cash for the merchandise, cash for the button hooks" from The Music Man (Rock Island lyrics here). The guys collectively came up with all of the lyrics from that fast paced song and we were rolling with laughter every time it was started. It was probably one of those things where you had to be there, but I can't remember the last time I laughed so hard.

Somehow all of that that riling up led to the cup challenge. My brother challenged us to bend over and grab a cup off of the floor with our teeth. The tricky part was that we had to balance on one foot and our hands could not touch the ground. He kept decreasing the height of the cup to make it even more challenging.

We were rolling with laughter once again as we fell on our heads while attempting the task, except for my dad who was falling asleep in the background, and Troy, who conveniently was upstairs packing for his trip to New York to avoid our giddiness.

Since we already had the cups out, we had to play the cup game, of course. You know, the one where you tap the beat and pass the cup to the next person while increasing in speed.

I'm sure that our shenanigans were much funnier because it was late and we were all so tired. Nevertheless, I felt so blessed to have family surrounding us. It has been a little lonelier lately without any extended family nearby, and I really appreciated those moments where tears were forming in my eyes from laughing so hard.