In Every Season of Raising Littles

**With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, this is fun glimpse back at my heart as a mommy just two years ago.  I’m still learning and growing.  Praise God for His work in our hearts.  God is sanctifying us all, reshaping us, and teaching us every day to be more like Him.  This is the good stuff.**

He made it out the door in his green clothing today, so I suppose I released him of the fates of the unecessary pinching, right?  In Kindergarten, there will be pinching…but by golly, it won’t be because I forgot to dress him in green. 

Then, there was the box of Lucky Charms cereal because apparently, the middle guy told his Daddy that he would need those for St. Patrick’s Day.  The handsome worship pastor husband had mercy on my soul, or more likely on my strep-inflicted throat, that is, and took both of the little guys to the grocery store this weekend while the bigger brother stayed home.  Bigger brother is calmer and quieter and I welcomed his presence even as my throat closed in on itself or whatever that nonsense was. (Bring on the Vitamin C…mothers don’t have time, am I right?!)  Anyway, the middle child had a brilliant idea and encouraged the purchase of Lucky Charms.  Props to him because this year, I felt zero pressure to dye breakfast foods green.  (Praise the Lord!)  Last year, there was green breakfast food which was followed by a green diaper change.  That kind of took the fun out of that festivity.

Spend any time on Pinterest at all and you’ll find yourself in a sea of creative inspiration and ideas to make every moment of childhood rather memorable.  Some days, you’ll want to rise to that level of creative memorablia-making.  Other days, you’ll just feel rather delighted that no one at Kindergarten is getting pinched due to a bad case of Mommy-brain.

Some days, I draw nice little drawings on the lunch napkins.  Ninja Turtles and Superheros have made their appearances in the lunchbox.  Most days, I rush around in the morning passing out frozen waffles while saying, “Someone grab the lunch bread!  Someone wash these grapes!  Who has the plastic baggies?!  Come back here with your brother’s backpack, PLEASE!!!”  Yep.  It’s serene and lovely and peaceful.  Take notes of that picture of perfection, will you?

Motherhood is full of seasons. Days that are busy, happy, joyful, messy, loud, beautiful days fill our calendars. Days of awesomeness, days of survival, days of creativity, and days of keeping everyone alive and out of the Emergency Room are all plentiful.  At the end of my most awesome, gold-star, memorabilia-making, Ninja-Turtle-doodling, dye the food to match the holidays, and take a stroll through the city library days?  Well, I often ask our littles, “What was the BEST part about today?”

The answers vary but share the common theme of simplicity.  “When you snuggled me this morning, Momma.  That was the very best part!”

“REALLY?! What about the part where we had snow cones?”
“Oh yeah!!  That was good, too.  The best part was snuggling.”

These conversations change from season to season, but the common denominator is always the same.  Love matters most to the littles.  In every season, they are thankful to be loved.  

No one asked about my lack of green food today.  I was a bit disappointed that the little people in my life didn’t miss my awesomeness.  Nope.  The lucky charms did the trick.  They would have been pretty happy with frozen waffles too.  I’m pretty sure my thematic breakfasts or coordinating Easter outfits aren’t high on their priority lists. 

Their wives will enjoy the pictures of them in matching orange bow-ties one day, mind you.  My efforts are not in vain.  The reward for three, annual, coordinating Easter outfits is coming!

I’m thankful that the boys don’t seem to be keeping score of the Pinterest-worthy moments of their childhood.  

I think they’ll   remember the special days and the fun we had together.  I think we are making the most of the little years.  I think that I am capturing some exciting experiences of their childhoods in the photographs, although I am working on the melt-downs that may or may not occur due to the stress of putting on three little Halloween costumes and then smiling for pictures.  I’ll let you infer who is having the meltdown. Let’s say that it is the children, yes?

All the while I am learning something significant about raising these little guys.  They care most about the simple moments that we spend together.  

They value the time snuggling and playing outside together.  They are thrilled to read books with their parents.  A trip to the park is as treasured as a trip to the moon.  In every season of raising littles, there are ups and downs.  I don’t get it all right…then other times, I’m terrific-ish.  

I’ve made charts for potty training and for obeying and tracked progress in stickers.  Praise the Lord that the littles don’t track my Super Mom status with a sticker chart.  Praise the Lord.  

My Super Mom status comes and goes.  The constant things remain constant in every season.

One day, we’ll enjoy the photo albums if I print off all of the pictures and get the albums finished before I die.  (I did so much better with the 35mm, I tell you.) In the future, one of my little men may grow into a real-life man who says, “Wow, Mom!  We did the most fun things when we were kids!” Maybe.  A girl can dream.

For today, the Kindergartener seems to have made it through the day pinch-free.  The baby didn’t have a green diaper.  The middle man ate Lucky Charms for breakfast and as a side-dish with lunch.  Whatever.

“Were you glad you had a green shirt on today?” I ask as the school-aged kiddo buckles his seatbelt around his booster seat.

“I guess…why?” he says and then interrupts himself with, “Oh, Mom!  A leprechaun visited my school today!!!”

So…there’s that.  Awesomeness, I tell you.  They are clearly tracking my awesomeness.

From my minivan to yours,                     ~Courtney