Mother’s Day 2020

Technically it’s over, but it was a good one and worth remembering so that would be the purpose for this post.  But before I reflect, we just officially finished our 58th day in quarantine.  Which seems a bit hard to wrap my mind around.  In the past two months, we’ve sheltered in place as a family, schooled at home and ran dangerously low on hand sanitizer, but thankfully not toilet paper.  Most days were good, but the hard ones were hard and made me more sad that I’m used to.  I learned how to sew some pretty comfortable masks and also did equivalent to 6,000 pieces of puzzles.  I spent both my birthday and today which was Mother’s Day under quarantine, which made them different but special at the same time.  And speaking of the latter, let’s get to this post…

You’d think they could give you a manual to somewhat prepare you for one of the best and hardest and most confusing but most wonderful jobs of your life.  But they don’t.  They just hand you those new babies and send you on your way, and what follows is kind of just a best effort in figuring it all out, little by little along the way.

The early years are precious.  But you don’t always see it at the time.  At the time, it’s just tiring and repetitive and silly and sweet and really all you know.

You’re given these small and wonderful and inquisitive little ones and the while days seem slow, but the years really do pass by quite quickly.

Then come the middle years and they are mostly fun with a little bit of hard in between.

It’s mostly easy and simple to love them

And they mostly easily and simply love you right back.

And all along the way, you stop ever so often and realize just how truly blessed you are, just because you’re a mom and just because you’re their mom.

I’ve always loved having two kids.  I love that we got a son to admire and a daughter to adore.  And like all moms, I didn’t always get it right, but thankfully I learned and they learned and God gave us lots of love and grace in it all.

And then you’re in a whole new stage.  With two teens who are trying to get through those hard and awkward teenage years.  And then there’s you, just trying to get through them as well.  And just when things seem like they are starting to come together a pandemic hits and life as you know it completely comes to a stop.

(Pretty dramatic, I know).  But overall, it’s been a good and growing time to be a mom.  Quarantining with two teens in your home gives you plenty of time and opportunities that we wouldn’t have normally had to just focus on our family.  And while most days it’s not my favorite, I am glad to be with my favorite people and in many ways I know this is precious time to appreciate and soak in.

And so I remember, today was a good one.  I enjoyed beautiful food and special times with our family.  And I received two incredible letters from both of our kids with words of affirmation that encouraged my heart in the most wonderful ways.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the amazing moms out there.  We might be in one of the most unique times of our lives, but I pray it’s a time full of blessings that will appear along side of the challenges and that we will all grow and learn and thrive as we continue to do the best and hardest and most confusing and most wonderful jobs we could ever have.