Reminders of Motherhood

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day in my town. It felt like spring had officially arrived, and along with that came the instictual feeling I think most women get that first beautiful day of the year: spring cleaning! Now, I'm not too big on the whole get behind and under the fridge and on top of the lamp shades or anything; I should be, but I'm not. I just mean I felt like cleaning anything in plain sight that wasn't presentable should an unexpected guest come by.

For some reason, the first victim of my cleaning binge was my purse. As I went through my purse and figured out what I could keep and what I couldn't part with, I came across some interesting discoveries inhabiting my purse. Some of these you may expect to find in a purse: a wallet (obviously) a key ring with more key chains than keys, some old bills (paid of course), some old receipts from Wal-Mart, Target, King Soopers...wherever. Other things that were found you may not expect to always see in your purse....unless you are a mother of young ones: a My Little Pony, a little board book, one single sock, a bib, and crumbs from some snack one of my children shoved in my purse at some unsuspecting moment. I tossed the old bills, the old receipts and brushed out the crumbs, and kept the important things in there; the pony, the book the sock and the bib.

The next victim was my car. I found similar things in my car that I found in my purse, but on a grander scale. Several toys, crumbs on, under and in between car seats. Fruit snacks stuck to the floor mats, a couple of wrappers from some on-the-go snack, and pre-school and Sunday School papers. I vacuumed up the crumbs and trash and fruit snacks, and stored away the precious pre-school and Sunday School papers in their designated box to be looked at again someday in the future when I'm feeling particularly mopey and sad that my children are all off at college and away from me.

After the car was tackled, I took a long, hard look at my yard, which suddenly reminded me of a rummage sale. Or maybe a Toys R Us that threw up all over our yard. Where did these kids get so many toys? And do they really all have to be outside at the same time? The weather is nice, but aren't we going a little overboard? Oh, well. I decided that could be hubby's spring cleaning contribution.

Upon walking inside, more mounds of toys, dishes in every corner and socks thrown off in a hurry to get outside and enjoy the grass with bare feet greeted me. And I got to cleaning that up.

As my day came to an end and everyone was winding down, Fiesty was having a little trouble getting to sleep. The rest of the house was quiet; Care Bear was asleep already, and hubby and Yoda had run off together somewhere. I took Fiesty into my bed with me in an effort to get her to relax and go to sleep. She tossed and turned for awhile and eventually gripped my thumb into her tiny little hand and drifted off. The last word she said before she finally went to sleep was "Happy". Right at that moment I realized how great it is to have my purse and my car cluttered with toys and books and papers because it makes me feel like my kids are with me when they aren't. I love having my yard look like a rummage sale because that means my kids had fun that day and enjoyed the weather, their toys and their friends. I love the dishes and toys cluttered in the house because it means my kids ate that day and are healthy. And I love that my little girl fell asleep next to me last night holding my thumb because it means she feels safe, secure and loved when she's with me. I wouldn't have things any other way. These are my subtle little reminders of motherhood; it's who I am. And it's the best gift God could have ever given me!!