What's Up Buttarcup: Mommy Monday

Hey guys! Welcome back to Mommy Monday. We took a break last week for the holiday but now we're back at it! (PS Does it feel like Memorial Day was 1,840 years ago to anyone else?!) Today my "cousin" Amanda is sharing. I say "cousin" in quotes because we aren't actually related. We met in Cali when we were bitty babies (less than one year old) through church. Our families quickly became great friends and we were basically raised together. We were sad to say goodbye to them when we moved to CO a few years later, but they ended up moving to CO as well!

I even lived with Amanda's parents for a short while in college and they feel like family to me! I have been blessed to know them. Amanda lived in New York for 8 years but she recently moved back to CO with her hubby and three kids. Guess what's the best part ever?! We live across the street from each other now! We often meet up for play dates and it's been SO much fun going through this motherhood adventure with her. I love her to the moon! x-Stef

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I struggled putting this together. I keep thinking of funny stories (like the time I flushed Hugo’s underwear down the toilet) or words of wisdom I have learned from others that I now cling to (like putting the ketchup under the hot dog directly on the bun - less mess - genius, right?). And I just didn’t know what to write. I think that every woman out reading this probably has beautiful life stories to share and wisdom that we can all benefit from. I am looking forward to reading this series for that reason. There is one thing thought that I keep coming back to and is what I want to share on this Mommy Monday.

Over the last year, my parents have been dealing with the declining health of my father. It has involved lots of tubes, hospital stays, tears, doctor visits, and decisions - very very difficult decisions. Throughout this time, my siblings and I have taken turns staying with my dad, comforting my mom, and trying to think of everything that we could do to help. When I mentioned what my siblings and I were doing for my parents to a friend, they remarked how good we were and how lucky my parents were to have us. I was surprised. If they knew all that my parents had done for us, they probably would be asking why we weren’t doing more. (Stefanie knows my parents and probably would agree.) Growing up, my parents were the kind who arrived early to set up and stayed late to clean up. They showed up to all of our activities. They stayed up late with us when we had homework. When I went to college they still asked if they could read my essays and wanted to hear about every day at school. They weren’t perfect. They did yell at us, forget us at school, and have unreasonable expectations at times. But we knew they loved us. And showed us what it means to be family.

Now back to what I wanted to write. Being a mom is hard. It’s stressful. It’s physically exhausting. It’s painful. And it’s full of failures. I am guessing I’m not the only one who yells at their kids when they drop the entire bag of cereal on the floor. Or pee their pants. Or forget their backpack for the umpteenth time. I am probably not the only one who has cried in the parking lot over the horrible trip to the store. But I hope you know it’s worth it. I hope we can see that what we are building is the relationships that will create a family legacy. We are creating the mortar that will hold our families together through those hard times ahead. So consider this a virtual fist bump. You are doing a hard work and doing great. Failure is inevitable but so is success! You are building a family that will last through the years. Now let’s go do the dishes (or change a diaper in my case). ;)

XO - Amanda

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Here is a little throwback of Amanda and I (maybe 5 years old?) at preschool. Awww!