Being the Mom

I can't see the floor.  I couldn't see it it yesterday either.  The past week was a whirlwind of crazy.  Monday was to be my recovery/search and rescue/please don't call Hazmat day.  Monday morning brought bees in the kitchen (I am allergic), wasp spray over clean baskets of laundry, escaped chickens and an hour long customer "service" experience which nearly reduced me to tears (FYI, blinding rage evaporates tears.)  Fast forward to that night.  It was 8:45 by the time I had dinner for the kids.  They were picking at the leftover chicken soup.  When I asked them for the third time to hurry, they said it tasted funny.  I had smelled it.  It smelled great, but one taste convinced me that it had turned a corner that we did not want to follow it around.

It was at this point that my eldest looked up at me and said, "You've been a great mom today."

I spluttered incoherently and eventually got out, "Why do you say that?"

"You haven't yelled at all," she replied, "and I love being with you."

I stood motionless for a moment (probably a good thing since the floor was a minefield of tupperware lids and pom-poms) and re-calibrated my idea of what being a mother entails.

Had I been in a grade giving mood, I would have given myself a "C-" for the day (a great morning devotional being the only thing standing between me and a failing grade), but there was my daughter giving me an "A."

In comparison to other moms, or magazines, or even in comparison to myself on good days, I was barely forestalling epic disaster.  But my daughter didn't need other moms or magazines or even me-on-a-good-day.  She didn't even seem to miss the floor.  She just needed her mom.

I was enough.

I was enough.

I am more than what I can or cannot do in a day.

I am a mom and that is the greatest gift I can give my children.

That said, I still kinda miss the floor.

p.s.  The link below is for "An Open Letter To Moms from Kid President."  It will make you smile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4Rnba85o8