Friday, May 2, 2008

A Mother's Work

Thank you for wondering where I have been. Your emails and thoughts are appreciated and heard!

I have been taking care of Wyatt, dealing with a little personal illness and tooth ache issue, feeding, bathing, cleaning up after and teaching my 4 little darlings, finishing Dawn's baby shower ensemble (pictured below), doing a little yard work, washing piles of laundry, cleaning house (my never ending nemesis), caring for new baby bunnies (also pictured below), helping the girls prepare for their piano recital, getting further behind, looking forward to summer, taking care of church and my callings and responsibilities that go along with them, and handling my real estate business with one closing and another listing going into escrow this month along with keeping the other sellers happy in this market. (Mikensee who has been doing sentence diagramming for the past 2 years would kill me if she read the previous sentence and I told her to diagram it!) I've been living in a bit of a funk and trying to work out some personal life goals (not there yet, but still working!) I've decided that I don't bounce like I used to and that twins are still a lot of work, even if they are 4 and getting ready for kindergarten. I've also decided that motherhood, although filled with fleeting rewards, is hard and not all that fulfilling in the short term! I know motherhood is wonderful; a true gift and I love it! I wouldn't trade it for anything (not even the NYC single professional living in a pristine penthouse, childhood dream I once lived for) but I'm just being real. There is nothing rewarding or glamorous about 4 year old temper-tantrums or 6 year old stubbornness or preteen drama - and yes I'm living all of these realities! I gained some much needed perspective from my friend Tamara this week who is the mother of my other favorite set of twins. It is so easy to get caught up in the daily drudgery that sometimes it seems like mountains of laundry and fingerprint smudges on every touchable surface are all that I can see. So I did what I tell my kids to do when they are upset and I took a deep breath. Tonight I baked some cookies just because I wanted some and I'm taking a minute to blog a bit, because I want to. I might still take a bubble bath and paint my toenails! Tomorrow will still be tough, but school will be out soon and I'm going to try and just have some fun. I'm going to enjoy my kids and work on some projects I really want to do, but don't usually allow myself to. I'm going to try not to wait to have fun until after all the work is done, because lets face it, a mother's work is never done.

Here is the finished Baby Shower Ensemble:




Here are Pork Chop and Petunia (the calico):



They are already (in less than a week) 3 times this size and Petunia has outgrown Pork Chop. They have no ears (we'll call it natural causes, but they were eaten) so they look like guinea pigs more than bunnies, but they sure are cute. We had 4, but lost two due to other "natural" accidents in the night. Mooey was my favorite because he looked just like a little holstein cow.

Please say a little prayer for Copper. We haven't seen him since this morning and it just isn't like him to be separated from Penny for too long.

This is my two up and coming concert pianists (their performances will be featured in a day or two on The Funk Family Blog.)




I hope you aren't drowning in drudgery at your house. If you are, please take a moment and think about it. Life happens only once. I hope to live it and not just clean it!

4 comments:

Lois Michael said...

Whoo Hoo....did I read school's out for the summer so now you can come out and play? Glad you took time for you. Motherhood can be very intense at times and from experience you really need some me time so you do not loose who you are. Glad you are doing that. Hugs my friend! Great post by the way....love your projects & the update on the kiddos.

Anonymous said...

Your new blog entry couldn't be more true. Funny thing is, i have been feeling the same way lately. I was even thinking of doing a mini book called "my life is..." and go on to show the laundry, dishes, potty training, etc, and then at the end tell how i wouldn't change it.

Jen P.

Anonymous said...

Hi Rachele - Thanks for your honesty in your blog. I think it is so important when others share that their lives are not as rosey as we think they are. I had a really bad week (school bus lost Andre, my sister had a baby and no on told me, etc), but today I have a little more perspective and plan to spend a fun day with my kids. I hope you enjoy your day not worrying about the little things and enjoy your kids. We cannot get today with them back:)

Kelly

Nicole said...

Glad to see you up and running Rachele... you are an inspiration to all other mothers and every mother I don't care who you are, has had moments of feeling the way you are/have. Thankfully, they pass and you have a few good wonderful days to re-charge you for another stretch of not so great days. You are a wonderful mother! I can tell just by the way you talk about your kids, the smiles on their faces and the things they are involved with. Keep up the great work!!