Motherhood in a Nutshell

When I was young and imagined myself being a mother, my thoughts would be dreamy and idealistic. I would picture myself reading a book inside a perfect house with my children playing nicely on the floor. I always had it ALL together with planned out meals and perfect relationships - I learned all too quickly that was not realistic.

Let's take a peek inside just one moment of my Mother's Day this year...DINNER.

It's a baseball tournament weekend so that meant someone had to be in charge of getting the baseball child to and from his out of town games and since I had a training for UpBeat Barre, that left dad the responsible party. Even though my darling 15 year old son offered to make dinner - I wasn't exactly in the mood to attempt the clean up that would inevitably happen - so off to a restaurant we went.

As a typical mom - I asked my oldest his thoughts on where we should go. He suggested Longhorn Steakhouse. An excellent choice. However, expensive and with an 8 and 7 year old in tow - I didn't want to attempt that. This didn't leave us with many great choices that were kid friendly. I opted for Slim Chickens. Fast, easy, kid friendly and they have diet Dr. Pepper. When I made the suggestion it was received with complaints. We went anyway.

$40 later with 3 waffles and a chicken strip meal we began to eat. 2 bites in the 7 year old decided he didn't like the waffles and wished he had gotten chicken strips and promptly stole the toast off of my plate.

"Mom, are you going to eat all those chicken strips?"

"No buddy, go ahead"

He took two. Which left me with 3. That's fine. Plenty.

5 bites in, the 8 year old decided he was full and started to ask every 30 seconds when we would be leaving.

"MOM, I really just want to go home. But actually I just want chicken strips, can I have one of yours?"

"Of course buddy, here you go"

That left me with two. I had already eaten one and was about to pick up the last when my 7 year old who was still hungry asked for the last one.

"Sure kiddo. Go ahead."

At this point the 15 year old who had been watching the baseball game on the TV and was into his phone and waffle clued in and decided that wasn't ok and promptly got mad at the little ones for eating mom's dinner on Mother's Day. (Sweet boy just sticking up for his momma). They felt awful and sad and tried to give the half eaten strips back. I assured them it was ok and ate the soggy waffle and some fries and sipped on the Diet Dr. Pepper as if was giving me life.

Could I have purchased more food? Of course. But I didn't want to. I was exhausted from the long weekend and wanted to go home and relax in my bed and dream of a dinner at Longhorn.

My dinner experience tonight is motherhood in a nutshell. Being a mother is a sacrifice. It's often depleting and exhausting. So why do we do it? Because of love. Because the reward is so great. Even though it is often a rollercoaster of emotions - we can't have the thrill of the ride without the bumps, twists and uphill climbs - it is ALWAYS worth it.

XOXO,

Kimberly