A beautiful Mother's Day it was! My previous mentioned list? Every single item checked off! Every wish granted! (Including no audible gas!) It was glorious. I relaxed all the way to my core. I shed a few tears over sweetly-worded cards. I choked up again over a gift my son put together: a collage of pictures starting with the picture of me holding him for the first time, all the way up to a picture of us from his senior pictures. Precious.
I loved my yummy cinnamon roll and coffee, my beautiful tulips,
my three unique bracelets: one from each of my equally unique kids.
I was spoiled with a hand-written coupon book, with a coupon for each day of this week, to make Mother's Day last all week.
Monday's coupon? "30-60 minutes of quiet time." I didn't technically redeem this until they were all in bed for the night...at 10:30. But I love the sentiment. Today's coupon: "You must be tired of hearing 'what's for dinner?' every night, so tonight we will cook dinner for you!" As I type, the girls and their dad are busily putting their efforts into a dinner of chicken cordon bleu. Hopefully that coupon will be redeemed before 10:30! :)
I also love my two new books, one of which I started and finished during my relaxing Mother's Day. And my gracious was it a treat to read. It is the first book from one of my very favorite bloggers, Big Mama, who is so hysterically funny and charming and honest. Her book is all those things and more. I laughed out loud multiple times...and shed some unexpected tears. Although this gal is earlier in her parenting journey, I still closed that book feeling so encouraged as a mom. It was confirming and strengthening for my (at times) frail heart during this season.
Last week I walked and talked with a friend for over an hour. Our oldest babies are one day apart. We have been friends since our babies were in the nursery at church together. We were in "Mommy & Me" group for years and years, having more babies and crying together over a lost baby and sleepless nights and potty training and kindergarten and homeschooling and parenting "fails" and child "fails" and learning to drive and on and on. We've "grown up" together as mommies. And now we are about to see our firsts graduate from high school and go out into the world. I'm so thankful for this friend, walking down a new and unfamiliar path is so much friendlier with a friend on that same path. Our walking and talking last week was all about this new season. Letting go. Sending out. SO much of what we talked about was written about in the last chapter of this book, "Little Steps of Letting Go". I dropped tears through most of this chapter.
In one part of it, she's talking about the new adventures kids experience in the different stages of their life, and how each requires us to let go a bit more. And here's a part that jumped out to me:
"The irony is that the hallmark of how well we're doing our job (being a mom) is determined by how our children adapt to all these changes. Have we given them the security they need to function with their peers? Do they feel loved enough to pour themselves into the lives around them? Are they secure enough to jump into life with both feet and choose the daring adventure that awaits them?
"And can we watch them fall and make mistakes and wrong decisions while trusting that this is all part of becoming the person God created them to be?"
Wowzers.
And then came the kicker:
She's speaking of a woman she heard speak recently on the topic of motherhood, and one powerful statement that stuck with her, and will stick with me forever:
"When we loosen our grip, He tightens His."
I'm counting on that.
Want to read more? Here's the book, with my highest recommendation.
I must end with this: a glimpse into what I live with. While trying to get a decent picture with my precious darlings, someone said it was time for a funny-face picture. It will be fun, they said. Ready? Yeah, I was the only one to take part in the funny face part.
