I hope all of you had a fantastic Mother’s Day and enjoyed time with your families celebrating the mother you are or the mother you have.  We celebrated with brunch and family time, and I received these great photos from a fabulous photographer which totally made my weekend.  I also received a Jane Austen apron from Scott and Jude.  Yep.  You heard me right.  Austen and cooking?  My two most favorite things.  I am so blessed.

I’m realizing as many times as I have celebrated the holiday with my family, I’ve never really understood what it means.  I think this year I really got it for the first time.  Being a mom is sacrifice and hard work.  Like really really hard work that I don’t think any of us can fully grasp or understand until we are here in the trenches.  I know I’m in the easy part without the toddler tantrums, the elementary school hyper activity, the middle school drama, or the high school driving lessons.  I know some of you are hearing me say it’s hard and thinking Sweetie, you have no idea.  And I agree completely.  But I think the it’s-not-about-me-at-all-whatsoever-anymore lesson changes the worldview of any mother, and that’s where I am now.  For me, right now, it’s hard.  Getting up at 5 to get us out the door by 6:45, teaching all day, and then coming home to the job that matters to me: that’s hard.  Wanting to give 110%, but not always feeling the energy to do so: that’s hard.  Forgetting every thought of that perfect, always scheduled mother I expected to be and just going with the current and letting it all go:  that’s hard.

But the rewards?  Pure joy.

So this Mother’s Day I thought a lot about the mothers I have seen, the ones I admire, the one I am, and the one I hope to be.

And my conclusion is this.  The mothers I admire and the one I hope to be can be defined with one word.  Love.  We feed with love, we wipe tears with love, we laugh with love, we discipline with love.  And the payment we receive?  More love and love and love.  Ridiculous as it seems, it’s a big huge love circle.  And that’s why this mama thing is working out pretty well, despite it’s challenges.

Because at the end of the day, all we want to do is fill up that tiny tummy and overflow someone’s little heart so that all that promise comes spilling out.  And we see the world with new eyes.  And that, my friends, is delicious.