Mother's Day

My Mother's Day started out great. The kids were very excited to give me all their gifts they had made at school during the previous week.
 
These were from Aaron.

 Nate made me a book at school.  It was very cute.

Sara got all the kids to help make this tree for me with fingerprints of paint.

And she wrote me this poem.

Then it was time for church.  After church, Scott gathered all the kids around for Mother's Day pictures in the back yard.

 

The kids gave me the cards they had made in Primary.

And then the kids all went their separate ways and forgot it was Mother's Day.  Scott made a nice dinner, but the kids all ignored me the rest of the day while I cleaned up their messes.  As it came time to put them into bed, I was feeling really frustrated that they hadn't been more attentive and thankful for me throughout the day.  Savannah and Sara knew they needed to do something to redeem themselves, so they dug out lotion and rubbed my feet, then painted my toenails and fingernails.  It helped to end the day on a better note. 

The truth is, though, being a mother is a pretty thankless job.  We as moms spend all of our time taking care of others, and very rarely get recognized for it.  Very rarely do my kids say, "Thanks for washing my clothes", instead I get yelled at for not making sure the shirt they had their heart set on wearing isn't clean.  Scott doesn't always notice when I've spent my day cleaning the house, but he does notice when I haven't.  Moms do the same things over and over every single day, and we are expected to just put up with the monotony of it.  And if we complain, we are assumed to be ungrateful for what we have.  Being a mother is wonderful, but it is really not easy.  My sister doesn't like Mother's Day, because she feels its a day to compare ourselves to this golden standard we feel we have to live up to, but we all feel we fall short of.  I don't view Mother's Day that way.  I view it as a day to recognize all that we are doing, not all that we aren't.  It's our day to finally hear "thank you". It's one day for others to take notice of all that we do and have them say thank you (whether its through kid made cards, or chocolate bars handed out in church).  I wish those thank yous came more often, I really do.  But even without them, at the end of every day, I consider myself lucky to have spent the day being a mother to these 7.