Mothering Moments.

In celebration of Mother's Day this month I've decided I am going to post a 'mothering moment' each day {feel free to join me!}.  I will be the first to say we had a rough weekend with the kiddos.  It seemed there was a mess behind every turn and a meltdown around the next.  And after weekends like that it is easy to forget all the good moments.  The stolen glances, the little giggles, the tender hugs that steal our hearts too often get overshadowed by the kicking, flailing and screaming that occur as well.

So in an effort to remember the good & ink it into my life...I'm sharing with you my motherhood moments for the month of May.  Buckle up...it is sure to be a bumpy ride.

Today is best described with the perspective of endcaps.  To appreciate the end, we must start at the beginning.  Don't worry it can be summed up in 1 sentence, but I will probably use 3:  Within 10 minutes of waking up, I was swishing dirty underwear in the toilet.  Mind you, I had the Lady on the toilet 3 minutes prior, begging her to take care of business.  And that is how we got started.  It didn't get much better {if I am being perfectly honest}.  But I was bound & determined that we would be doing family night tonight with a lesson and all.  Not my typical, 'hurry, find The Friend, read something, give a thought & get these kids to bed approach.'

The hubs was not home for dinner and I still had no lesson in mind.  So I asked Scoobs what his favorite scripture story was.  His response?  The Lamanites.  A broad subject.

So I noodled that until inspiration hit about 10 minutes later.  After we cleaned up dinner, took showers & got jammies on I was ready for our grand lesson.  The hubs still wasn't home, but I was going to press forward regardless.  So I herded them into the playroom & we were just about to begin when dad got home.  perfecto.  Welcome to the mayhem.

Our lesson started with a song & a screaming Lady.  Really.  She has this screaming thing mastered & uses it all too frequently, but again, we were pressing on.  Thoughts of Elder Bednar's talk on being more diligent at home floating through my mind helped me to feel better about my efforts.  Who can forget his comments: "Now and then verses of scripture were read amid outbursts such as “He’s touching me!” “Make him stop looking at me!” “Mom, he’s breathing my air!"  These remarks have made me feel better time and time again.

So while the Lady screamed in the hallway, we sang in the play room.  Finally we shut the door on the Lady so we could hear each other & it wasn't all magical.  Not in the least, but there were snippets & moments of magic and that is what counts.  To coincide with Scoobs requests on Lamanites, we talked about Samuel the Lamanite.  We read from the scriptures & built our own tower with blocks.  We had good guys & bad guys & bad guys that turned into good guys {Spider man & the police man figure, both were repenters in case you wondered}.  And the Lady finally decided to join us sans screaming which is always a treat.

And while the lesson was simple & didn't take any preparation on my part other than thought, it brought us together to end the day on a good note.  And I might dare go so far as to say, we all learned something.  It certainly increased my patience to see me through the bedtime routine & made me rock the Lady a little longer this night & that is something I want written in ink.