Mother's Day reflections...

"The most important thing she'd learned over the years was that there was no way to be a perfect mother and a million ways to be a good one." - Jill Churchill (writer)

So, Mother's Day was spent in a flurry of way-too-big breakfast, presents, swimming, picnic and the park, barbeque dinner and dessert, baths for two filthy little monkeys and a fairly early bedtime (not for me, though, as "Grey's Anatomy" happened to be on!).

I spent a good deal of the day wondering if I was acting in a manner appropriate to the day - did I appear as though I was relaxed and enjoying my family? Did I manage to curb my eye rolling at Mike's overly organized picnic packing? Was I laughing and playing with the girls more than usual?? I really don't know.

What I did realize, though, is that I spend an awful lot of really quality time with my family on a daily basis. I realized that, while not making breakfast or getting everyone organized was a really nice treat, Mother's Day is not all that unlike other Sundays in my life. Granted, we weren't "doing things" around the house and yard as we usually do, but that really didn't seem to matter. The four of us just really enjoy spending time together and it doesn't need to feel contrived because the calendar says that it's Mother's Day.

I have also realized that for all the mother guilt that seems to riddle my friends and I, we totally have it together and are on the right track with our kids. I have such a wonderful group of mom friends that I respect and admire and their children are truly a pleasure. Now, we're not the Stepford Wives, by any stretch, but I think we tend to be overly hard on ourselves. Here is a somewhat abbreviated list of qualities that make my friends amazing moms:

1. Those of us who stay at home rarely lament the fact that we're not at the office.
2. Those of us who work do an astounding job of holding it all together.
3. We support our spouses in their work, hobbies and needs just as much as we do our kids.
4. We genuinely enjoy spending time with our children.
5. We strive to fill their bellies with wholesome foods.
6. We strive to fill their heads with wholesome knowledge.
7. We are not contributing to the couch potato generation.
8. We love to sit and read with our kids.
9. We realize that our kids need us to be their parents and not their best friends.
10. We promote healthy self-esteem and do our best to lead by example.
11. Whether or not we actually DO anything about it or not, we all realize that we need to take time for ourselves and our marriages in order to be recharged for the kids.

Whew - that was a little bit of a self pep-talk. With that, I should go and enjoy Jordan's time while her sister slumbers....