Mother's Day 2011

If someone had told me long ago that in 2011 I'd be spending Mother's Day surrounded by my five children, I would have said they were crazy. All this has happened in the last seven years and it seems as though I blinked.

On Sunday morning I got breakfast in bed for the first time. I knew they had been planning it, but I had to act surprised. I loved lying in bed with the baby, listening to Cody and the kids out in the kitchen shushing each other because "Shhhh!! It's a surprise!" and there were a lot of "This is awesome and Mom's gonna love it!" And in they came, one by one to give me hugs and wish me a happy Mother's Day. I absolutely loved eating breakfast surrounded by five of the people I love most in this world.

I spent the day doing a lot of reflecting on motherhood. To be honest, it is nothing like I had imagined it years ago. In most ways, it's a million times better than I could have imagined it. It is by far the hardest job in the world and often times the most thankless. But at the end of the day (and at the end of the worst days at that) I walk in see them sleeping and I wonder how I got to be so lucky. I have these five precious people in my life and I don't think I deserve them. In fact, I know I don't. I make a lot of mistakes as a mom, but it seems that these people are always so eager to forgive and climb up in my lap and give me a sticky kiss. I don't think I could ever tell them how much I love them because there simply are no words.

When I stop and look around at the chaos and the messes and the gooey fingerprints on the windows and the doors and the [what I hope is] chocolate pudding smeared all over the hallway wall, I have to remind myself that this is a beautiful life Cody and I have created.