Moms and their stuff.

I am a part-time stay-at-home Mom. I work outside of the house two days a week.

During the "stay-at-home" days, my kids are all in school, so I spend much of my time doing traditional "Mom" things... laundry, grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, more laundry, and a ton of managing the happenings of those that live in our home.  

I don't do those "Mom" things for the recognition, God knows. I do them because I am a caretaker by nature, and those are things that just need done. Does anyone appreciate the effort I put in to making everything in our house run smoothly? My husband does, of course, because if I didn't do it, he couldn't do what he loves and do what fuels his energy... which is his work. Do my kids appreciate what I do? The verdict is still out on that one.

Here's the thing with being a Mom. Most Moms get squat of verbal or physical affirmation that their children (and probably many husbands) appreciate what they do. You can figure out the reasons for that on your own.

When was the last time your child thanked you for buying the groceries? Or, for coordinating the car pool schedule?

If you know me personally, you know that I am on the PTA committee at our elementary school that just put on a pretty kick ass 5K fundraiser this past weekend. After four months of meetings, input, more meetings, coordinating things and people, more meetings, a boatload of mental stress, and a lot of sleepless nights, we pulled off a successful party of over 600.

To be honest, at crunch time (i.e. the two weeks prior to the race), life sorta sucked. Tasks were big and time was short. Family life suffered. Laundry didn't get gone. Meals were take out. Children and husbands were inadvertently neglected. Tempers were short. Phone calls were long.

But, we did it. We planned a pretty impressive race. Since then, we have recieved so much positive feedback and appreciation  from participants for creating a wonderful race atmosphere and an awesomely organized event. It has been incredible.

And, you know what, despite the sacrifices of the past four months, it feels good. It feels great!

It is tuly awesome to successfully do something outside of the house, yet, in the role of a Mom, and to have someone tell you that all of your hard work and effort was worth it... that you are appreciated.

It fuels us, doesn't it? 

Hmmmm... something to ponder as we approach Mother's Day.