#267 - MOM, You Are Enough Just As You ARE!

Happy Mother's Day! :) If you are a mom, today's blog is devoted to you!

Proverbs 31:28 - Her children rise up and call her blessed (happy, fortunate, and to be envied); and her husband boasts of and praises her...

Lets just say, yesterday was one of THOSE days! Many of you mom's out there maybe able to relate if you have young kids, but even for those mom's with older kids, this is for you! If you can hang with me until the end of the post… there really is a message for you! :)

Day in the Life…
It was Tyler's Day of Rest, which we both highly value our Day of Rest. The day that we can just have "me-time" to unwind, recharge & not do ANY work. The kids and I were going to HEAD OUT to run errands, always an interesting thing with 3 kids 4 years old and under, but we wanted to give dad some space & quiet. (AS I write this, on Mother's Day, Tyler went upstairs to check on Trinity, who is 2, as she was just waking up…. never a good sign when you hear bath water running. Uh-oh!)

Anyways… back to yesterday… I'm going to try not to go into too many details of our interesting day yesterday, but you have to know everything to really appreciate the whole picture!!! We started getting ready to head out around 10:30.

• Before leaving, I had to change Tyler Jr TWICE. Our kids walk in DIVINE health in Jesus name, but some things were going around at pre-school, and Tyler Jr had the squirts. #possibleTMI
• Tyler and Trinity were playing, and Tyler Jr shoved Trinity down, so he got a spanking. (We do time-outs a lot, but if it is something mean or deliberate, or something they know better, they get a spanking). 
• Loaded Tyler Jr and Trinity up in the van while I'm finishing their summer schedule at the kitchen table (one of our errands - to go pay MyGym) and packing Timothy up. The door leading to the garage was open and the van door open so I could see and hear (and load Timothy right in). All of the sudden, I hear a very loud RACE CAR (van) ENGINE REV'ING! Tyler Jr had come to the front seat and was playing with nobs, and pressed the gas. This was not the first time this had happened and he was told NOT to do that, probably the 4th. I screamed b/c it scared me, Timothy immediately started crying because I was loud and the van was loud. Then I went out to get Tyler Jr. He knew he was in trouble. I brought him inside and we sat down (as Timothy is still crying). Now Tyler Jr is crying, while apologizing, "I'm sorry mommy. It will never never happen again." As a sanguine child, he always is soooo remorseful when he does something wrong. BUT, in the past the "never never happen again" doesn't always play through and truly "never happen again." As we were sitting there, I told him, "Tyler Jr, I'm going to pray and ask the Holy Spirit if you need to get a spanking for this. What you did is VERY dangerous. When you play with nobs in the van, and press on the gas, that is VERY dangerous." My flesh didn't want to spank him (because he truly did look very remorseful), but as I asked the Holy Spirit, he said yes. This was the 4th time! Need to connect the BUTT with the BRAIN! So… spanking #2!
• Upon waking, Trinity took off her diaper and got poop smeared on her carpet, bed, sheets and door. Lovely. She was given a warning. 
• We FINALLY left the house around 12:30!
  

  

  Do you ever have days where you FEEL like how Trinity
  LOOKS in this picture?!

• Got back home, I laid Trinity down for her nap & went back in her room about 15 minutes after she was in there to check on her. She had taken off her diaper and got poop smeared on her carpet, bed bumper pads and rug! SECOND TIME in one day! If this wasn't about the 4th time this week….. but this time I followed through on the warning and she got a little spanking. My 3rd spanking of a child for this day! (I rarely have to spank, so this was quite an exception day!)
• PRAISE THE LORD - we got a last minute babysitter (after the day I was having, I needed out!!) for a date night. She got to our house and said the neighbors door was wide open and their dogs (3 of the 5!) were out. 
• I went outside to see if Ms Patti knew her door was wide open. As I was in our driveway, getting ready to go holler for her, the white poodle came barking at me. I decided NOT to go to her door because their big boxer was barking and I was getting "chased" by the poodle. Then, while in my driveway, the poodle jumped up on my hamstring and BIT ME!!!! BIT ME!!!(which is now black and blue).

REALLY?! Could the day get much more interesting?!?! 

Crying in my closet, partially from pain, partially from exhaustion, partially because my post-baby body I couldn't find anything to wear. I just wanted to get out of the house.  We left, went and ate (while in line, I got a phone call asking if Trinity had a diaper on when she went down for her nap - b/c it was off and poop everywhere - 3rd time!!!) and went to see the movie, "Mom's Night Out." 

At this point, I just wanted to unplug my brain! As long as my kids ate something for dinner, ANYTHING, popcorn, candy, chips (I didn't care) and went to bed before I got home, I would be happy! 

So… the movie was GREAT!!!! SOOOOO funny!!!! Tyler even LOVED it! It was OUR LIFE!!! The mini-van, the mom cleaning only for her house to get destroyed just hours later by kids, the mom escaping into her closet to get a break and hide while eating chocolate! I thought, "This is MY life!!!" 

When we chose the movie, I didn't know it was made by some of the same producers of Facing the Giants, a great Christian movie. SO, WHO KNEW that during a movie, I was going to be so ministered to and reaffirmed that GOD made me to be a mom, and despite the chaos at times, the messes, I was JUST ENOUGH being me! I even cried twice during the movie. 

Then… when we got home last night, looking at a card on the counter that I was getting ready to mail, I remembered. A few months ago, a girl I know was hit by a drunk driver and her 2 year old son Josiah was killed. ……………………………………………..

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It sunk in. And I thanked God. She would give ANYTHING to be cleaning up poop off the carpet. She would scrub the poop with tears of JOY! If only she could do that. My Timothy's middle name is Josiah. Timothy Isaac Josiah McCart. 

So friend, despite whatever chaos may be going on in your life… maybe you've even had days like my day yesterday…. despite it all, God loves you and sees you! You ARE good enough! You were made to be the mom of your kids! And even on the roughest of days, the days you want to go hide in your closet and eat chocolate, THAT'S OK! God loves you and sees you AND you are a GREAT mom!!

I decided for me, I'm going to enjoy this time. I'm going to stay in the moment. I'm going to THANK GOD for the opportunity to be the mom of my kids, poop and all! 

What are YOU thankful for on this Mother's Day? I would love to hear your thoughts!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!