Tuesday thoughts...

first day of school, 2010

As the summer comes to an end...I am struck with a feeling of being blessed.

Blessed without measure.  4 healthy, amazing kids who are actually absorbing the values that we are trying so very hard to instill in them day by day.

Coaches, teachers, grandparents, friends, their friends' parents...all tell us what  a good job we are doing.  This makes me happy.  Compliments coming from people that interact with them when we aren't around.  It's a tough job, and it certainly isn't ever over no matter how many kudos we get.  It's made even harder when your time is divided by 4.  Tougher still when you are submerged in a world where it seems most people are raising their children to be entitled.

We aren't perfect parents by any stretch of the imagination.  We fail probably as much as we succeed.  I'm learning it is very much a 1 step forward, 2 steps backwards process.  And that, my friends, makes it very difficult getting up that 'raising your kids' hill.  It's more of a mountain, really.  A sheer cliff.

As I still struggle to find balance in building a new hobby/business, running a household, focusing on my kids, blogging, finishing the new abode...I have to remember what is most important.  THEY ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.  No matter how much I try not to lose myself in this parenting journey, 4 other little souls are more important than my own.

It's hard not to think of Jake, too. Without him by my side I couldn't be half of the mom that I am.  {Okay, three quarters of the mom that I am.}

Who was it that said if it's a job worth doing, it's worth doing right?  I think it is really a proverb, but that is a debate for another day.

Blessings to you.