MOTHER'S DAY 2017

Mother's Day always brings all the feels, and I've written at length about many of them.  It is multi-layered, and I am sandwiched in the beautiful place of having my children with me and being able to honor my living mother whom I adore.  Adoption adds another layer where I think regularly of W & V's birth mother, and the ways that I share this day with her.  And, you can't stop onto social media for a hot second without realizing how loaded Mother's Day can be.  I also don't really love how my husband and kids are supposed to be "extra nice" to me on just this one day.  Why aren't they extra nice to me all the time? 😜 Don't they realize how hard I work for them? 🤣 Honestly, John is really one of the most gracious, sacrificial people ever, and my children are by and large extremely affectionate (though not necessarily extremely obedient), but I don't like the added pressure that Mother's Day brings.

That said, I happily enjoyed going to get a mani/pedi by myself on Sunday afternoon cause it was Mother's Day and John told me to.  I also decided that we needed to eat lunch and dinner out so I wouldn't be bothered with cooking or cleaning up, so though I may not like the pressure it can put on others, I am happy to reap the benefits.  You can just call me Carol Double Standard Spenst.

I think Mother's Day for me often caps off the emotional spring that I regularly experience.  It feels like the exclamation point on the extra feels I've been having for about a month (+ + this year 😳).  So this year, I'm glad that it's done.  Because of the ways that I share it with another mother close to our family, it often fills me with sadness.  I am reminded all over again of the ways that this world is not how it should be.  I long for heaven, which is a good, though hard, place to be.

But, it was a sweet day for me, and I'm thankful to be a mother.  8.5ish years into this gig, and there is SO much I've learned and SO MUCH still to learn.  I have finally figured out that it goes a million times faster than I thought it would.  The years are so short, so I'm glad that for now, I've got these four loves to snuggle and cherish in my home.

Sweet Muffins for Mom was last week with this precious kindergartner.



And, the twins' teacher got this adorable pic for me.

(Violet told me later that the sun was trying to get her.)

I woke up to gifts and a LOT of enthusiasm from the children who had been talking for a couple of weeks to Dad about Mother's Day and how to make it special.  I so appreciate their abundance of love for me.

One of my neighbors caught John at Target while they were getting cards and sent me this sweet shot.

All in all, I enjoyed the Mother's Day that I had, and I'm truly so grateful from the bottom of my heart for the mothers (my mom, my mother-in-law and Gran Gran) who have walked in front of our family and loved us so well.  We are better every day because of them.