Mama, I love you

 Childhood goes so fast.
One minute you're way up in your grandparent's tree, dodging deadly horse chestnut shells being tennis racquet-ed at you from a certain ground level brother, or making up cases about missing kittens and murderous pennies being tossed out of UFO's for the infamous Daring Detectives to solve, and the next you're going over the pros and cons of a variable vs. fixed rate mortgage. Sound familiar?
Becoming a mom has made me see my own childhood in a new way. And I can't reflect on it without thinking of my own mom, and the challenges she must have (okay...most certainly) had raising four babies, especially without a second parent. I remember the early months with Hudson, and how for many weeks the routine was: nurse for a few minutes, take 20-60 minutes to get a burp out, nurse again, burp again, nurse to sleep, and then pray with all my might that said child would stay asleep for more than 20 minutes at a time. And around and around it went. The thing is, I know this is a typical newborn schedule, so it makes me wonder how on earth did my mother do this with three, count 'em, three babies and a two year old busy busy toddler running around?!
I need a nap just thinking about it.
After Hudson was born, I asked my mom a few of these things. She said that often she would just lay us all out in a row on the floor, and take up post on the couch, just to get a bit of rest. When we were in that tough stage where we weren't quite mobile enough to check out our surroundings, but were still curious and busy, my mom would stick us in the stroller and walk for miles and hours, or give us multiple baths - just anything to keep us entertained for a little while. Sometimes I get frustrated when Hudson weaves himself around my ankles and bangs my shins with drawers while I'm trying to get supper ready, but I hold my tongue, because I remember my mom saying that when we got to the walker stage, we would constantly be following her around, bumping into her and bruising up her legs. It hurts my brain to think of the overwhelming task of having four little lives dependent on you to provide for, nurture, and help grow into healthy human beings.

 We didn't have alot of money growing up, being that there were five of us living off of my mom's secretary salary, but she certainly did the best for us that she could, and more. We were in soft ball (okay...tee ball), soccer, choir, a brief stint in ballet (just the girls, not Chad), swimming lessons, piano lessons, guitar lessons, drum lessons (you guessed it - me!), not to mention the many youth group activities, and the list could go on. All of these things cost money, but my mom never stopped us from being involved in any of them - her reply to when something came up that we wanted to do (within reason) was always "We'll make it work." We didn't go out to eat very often (instead we got to order pizza every third Friday), and we didn't take big vacations (instead we took road trips out to the Okanagan to visit my mom's look-alike cousin, Dayle, and her family), but we made awesome memories and really lacked for nothing. Plus it taught us that we can't always have everything we want. It taught us to make do with the things we have.
I guess I'll never know how she got through those young years. Or the next set of years which brought on many statements of, "When I have kids, I'm going to let them do whatever they want!", which I'm sure she had a good smirk about after one or more doors were defiantly slammed. Yet she continued to, night after night, come to our rooms and sing us the "I'll Love you Forever" song, to which we sang right back, replacing "sweethearts" with "mommy", and it seemed to always set things right again.
No comment about surviving the teenage years!!

 I've learned so much from my mom (including tying my shoes, riding a bike, and *gulp* driving a van). From her I developed my love of reading, walking, and long drives. I'll never be able to hear the song "Lady in Red" or anything by Bryan Adams without thinking of her. She's taught me that no matter what your situation, you can find the good, and choose to make things work. And also that if you make a wrong choice along the way, as we all do, there is nothing that the grace of God cannot cover.We are quite different people, with different views on life, and there have been misunderstandings and hurts along the way, but there's no reason to not move forward and just keep on learning and growing.

 I hope to be a mom like her. I want to love and cherish my kids, even when it's tough. I want to read to them, sing to them, and put on the sprinkler underneath the trampoline for them. I want to take them on long walks and make up stories with them to help chore time be less of a...well...chore. I even hope to teach them discipline by following up on my threats (we've all tasted a bar of soap, and Chad only had to get doused with cold water once or twice in the morning before he knew he better be up by the time mom came back!). Most of all, I want to point them in the direction of the Heavenly Father, whatever the sacrifice.
So happy mother's day, mom, and I hope you have Spice Girls in your head alllll day! Ha! Love you!

P.S. Here is the very menacing shell of a horse chestnut that I referred to earlier, just to give you an idea of what was winging past our heads as we clung to the shaky branches of my grandparent's tree: