Monday's Musings: Motherhood

Motherhood brings as much joy as ever, but it still brings boredom, exhaustion, and sorrow too. Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop his own individuality especially while you struggle to keep your own. ~Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons

Ever since I was a little girl, I always knew what I wanted to be...a Mom! It was one of my dreams. I did not really know everything that was involved in being a mom, but I knew that I wanted it to be part of my life. My parents are wonderful and loving and I am so blessed that the Lord placed me in their lives to be their little girl. They have taught me so much about being a parent and I am so thankful to them. However, nothing can completely prepare you for being a mom, until you experience it for yourself.

I love my two little boys. They are so precious to me. I love to snuggle with them and hold them; tickle them and make them laugh. They are beautiful gifts from the Lord and I am so blessed that He chose me to be their Mommy.

Along with this joy, I have definitely experienced the exhaustion - especially in the first few months of the baby's life. I feel that I may not always think or speak clearly, but it all works out - eventually I will say the correct thing! Sleep is definitely a good thing...it is something that I should be doing right now, but I decided that I wanted to blog a little bit first. Last night, my little guy went for 10.5 hours between feedings! PTL!!! The last feeding was around 7:45pm and then he woke up at 6:30am!!! I was so excited and I am looking forward to consistency in this extended night sleeping. I know that I "work" better when I am well rested.

It has been so much fun to see how much Brady has grown up in the past few months - he loves letters and books and loves to learn. It has been fun to enjoy the little guy's smiles and to watch him turn over for the first time last Friday! Brady and I cheered him on! It was so much fun.

I am enjoying the journey of being a mom to two beautiful boys. There is so much to learn and so much to pray about and sometimes it can seem overwhelming, but I am thankful that the Lord is always by my side, helping me to discover all that He has created me to be as a Mom and as an individual, and to also discover the precious gifts that he has poured into my sons' lives. Part of who God created me to be is a mom, and I am thankful for these beautiful boys. Life would not be complete without them.

If you would like to participate in Monday's Musings or check out what other people's thoughts are about this quote, head over to TCC's blog and check it out!

Monday Musings..."Normal"

My sister and best friend, TCC, has begun hosting something called Monday Musings. She posts a quote and then challenges us to critically think and post our thoughts on it...then we can link back to her! How fun...yet, I have not had the chance to partake in it until today! My critical thinker has been a little busy! However, I would like to start partaking in this! I don't know how deep my discussion will be, but it is what is on my mind at the moment!

So, the quote of the week is:
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well." by Joe Ancis

So, what is normal? According to Merriam-Webster, it means "conforming to a type, standard, or regular pattern."

What do I think of as normal? Does it mean that you do not have any problems and your life is peachy? Does it mean that you eat white bread and white rice instead of brown? When we were kids, my sister would ask for "normal bread and normal rice" which meant "white" bread and "white" rice - she is a funny one! I always preferred wheat or oatmeal bread - so, does that make me not normal? (BTW, my sis does eats wheat bread now! So, she is not normal anymore either!)

When I do think about the normal way of doing things, I think of what is acceptable or doing what the majority of people are doing. In America, it is normal to have credit card debt and live outside of your means...the "American Dream"! That sounds like a nightmare to me - and stressful too! When Dawson and I were married, we were swamped in debt - from college and our cars, but we worked hard to be where we are today - debt free, besides our home, and we plan on staying that way - and I hope that many others are in the same boat as us...making a new "normal".

I guess I do not think that anyone is really "normal" - because I really do not know what normal is. We may have similarities, but we are all different. I think that if we were all "normal" that is would be really boring around here - like we were all made with the same cookie cutter. It is nice to have similarities with others, but differences are fun too - it makes us who we are.

I think that I may understand what he means though. Sometimes, it seems like everyone else has things together - the perfect life, when in fact that is just the surface that you may see of this person. Once you get to know them, you can see what problems they are facing. So, they may appear "normal" when you initially meet someone or see them from afar...but when you really get to know someone, you see that they are not perfect or normal. So, I suppose I can agree with his quote in if he meant it in the way that I just wrote about. However, I do not believe that anyone is really normal.

Well, that is all that I have tonight for this post. Thank you for hosting this sis, and I hope that you enjoyed this and that it made some sense...it is getting a little late!