So I just read this amazing post by one of my favorite bloggers ever (her personal blog is Rocks in my Dryer).   She just gets it… this joyful, exhausting, overwhelming, huge responsibility of being a Mom.  She gets it, and she knows how to communicate it.

I’m not sure I was fully aware, back then, how incredibly taxing those days were. I operated much of the time in survival mode, buzzing between a pediatrician visit to a botched bedtime to a temper tantrum to an explosive diaper (or three). And I loved it – make no mistake. For all the exhaustion, there were many times that were so precious they did (and still do) take my breath away. But the intensity of the demands had me bouncing back and forth constantly between joy and discouragement, wonder and fear. I remember feeling guilty, sometimes, knowing there would never be a sweeter season in my life, so why was it that I sometimes just wanted everyone to go to sleep already?  (Quoted from Parenting.com)

I read this just this evening, and it moved me to tears.  Seriously… this is where I’m at most days.  And she continues at the end of her post (which you really must read!), to say that after all is said and done we will think, “this is very good”.    And today of all days, I had a glimpse of that.

We were busy all day, out and about doing things, enjoying each other, having fun.  Analise was in rare good form today… very sweet, obedient, not whiney or teary, full of grace… the girl I know she can be.  Josiah was bouncy and playful, sweet and charming.  And I enjoyed my kids today.  It was balm to my sometimes beat-up Mommy ego that is constantly fighting  with tantrums, colds, diapers, cracker crumbs, rundown trains and tears.   I know this calling as a Mom is awesome and holy and full of great rewards (another fantastic post),  but today was a much needed glimpse of those rewards.   And at the end of the day, this post (quoted above) wrapped it up for me.

Ok, I know most of you think I’m creative, but I get my creative ideas from all kinds of great blogs.  I spend too much time on the internet (gasp!  the first step to recovery is admitting it…), but I’m trying to redeem that by putting into action the cool things I find (which at the moment, are collected into a HUGE list of bookmarks in FireFox).   So here are a few good moments from this past week…

It’s January, so of course, it’s a good time to be celebrating (or dreaming about!) snowmen.  So I made Analise and Josiah these cute and yummy snowmen milkshakes.  I just realized mine weren’t quite the same as the blog, but here’s where I claim creative liberty.   And yes, Analise is dressed as Cinderella 🙂

Lauren and Anna came over to play on Thursday.  I made snacktime and mealtime more interesting with a muffin tin.  They LOVED it!  I might serve more meals in muffin tins.  I even gave the kids fun little fruit picks for spearing their food and dipping.

Snacktime with strawberries, grapes, graham snacks, yogurt and whipped cream for dipping.

Lunchtime with hotdogs, grilled cheese, chips, ketchup, carrots and ranch dip.

From my last post… Jane and I (mostly Jane!) made these beautiful silhouettes from a tutorial here.  Not a great picture, but I think they turned out lovely.  They are missing the “E” (on the left) and the “A” (on the right), because she’s waiting for me to send gold paint…  I’ve got everything to do a set of my two kiddos, as well, and now I’m motivated to get at it!

Silhouettes of Jane's little girls

I don’t have too long this morning, but I thought I’d share all that’s going on in my kitchen today.

I’m in charge of dinner for a Life Group of 19 people this evening.  It probably won’t be that many people, and we’ve been trying to plan simpler meals to make it easier on everyone.  I’m also sending some food with friends who are visiting a mom who just had a baby.  So, I’m making tortellini soup (um, quadrupling the recipe in 2 big stockpots!), a double batch of homemade breadsticks (I used this recipe to make thick crust pizza last week and it was GREAT!), and a batch of these yummy, Blondies with Chocolate Chips & Walnuts.

Good eatin’!