Mother's Day

So, this year for Mother's Day we had limited finances, so I simply told my husband that I didn't need any gifts for Mother's Day. I just needed him to cook for me and just help me with the house a little more and the girls. He did really great and it overall was a very good Mother's Day. Morgan gave me wonderful things that she made at school and then they all had cards and other little things they made during church. It was just overall a sweet Mother's Day weekend for me.
However, like most Mother's Days it left me contemplating how I'm doing in my role of a mother and wife. Of course, like all mothers out there, I judged myself more harshly than I probably should have. I of course looked on all of the things I'm not doing or am not doing well enough, instead of focusing on the things that I am doing.
I only saw that the house always seems to be in some sort of messy situation instead of the fact that my kids are having fun and learning daily and that we get to enjoy lots of time having fun together.  I saw the fact that I'm always doing laundry and can never keep up with it all and that the folded clothes tend to sit in their baskets for days before it all gets put away instead of focusing on that my family has more than enough clothes to wear that I can skip doing laundry for a few days and we still all have clean clothes. I only see that my kids are always asking to snack and I give in a lot of times out of frustration and then they don't eat their meals like they should instead of seeing that at least they are not going hungry.
I guess it all comes back to perspective and the things we choose to focus on. Today I decided to postpone doing any housework until I sat down and watched something just for me. I decided to watch "Mom's Night Out" which was probably the best thing for me to watch. There was so much that I gleaned from it today. It reminded me that we mothers tend to be our harshest critics. We need to sit back and not focus on our weaknesses, but our strengths. We need to look at everything we do and not focus on the things that we don't.
Our job as mothers is far from easy. It is usually messy, loud, challenging, and stressful most days. However, it truly has it's rewards. Getting to see the people that my children are slowly becoming and the sweet moments we get to share make it all worth all of the stress, chanllenges, mess, and noise.