Right now, I am standing at the kitchen counter. I’m checking emails on my laptop, listening to the WG play in the family room, watching Baby B finger feed bananas and diced carrots and listening to the hum of the lawn mower outside. I’m also frying okra (WG’s favorite), making mashed potatoes, setting the table and boiling eggs for breakfast tomorrow morning. Oh yes, and I’m catching up on the day’s news on NPR, opening the mail and doing laundry.
It seems that many of my days end this way – multi-tasking and rushing way through the dinner hour. I wish that I could slow down and enjoy my husband, my kids and myself during this time of day, but it seems to be at odds with the very concepts of being a mother. And I hear from the moms I interview for the magazines that it only gets busier. As the kids get older, I know they’ll be homework to check and after school events to make life even more complicated.
As I look around, I realize that I am the only one multi-tasking. WG is marching around the living room playing the flute. Bennett is discovering spitting with squeals of delight. And Mel is enjoying taking care of his lawn.
I guess that’s what it means to be a mother. We take on the craziness – the hurry scurry of life – so that our families can enjoy the simple pleasures. It’s because I’ve had a million things going at once that they have a home cooked meal at our dinner table, the time for stories and cuddling and clean, fresh pajamas every night. And as I stand here, I’m happy to take on the chaos for my family if it means they enjoy the gift of an average evening at the Williams house.
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Corey, do you ever wonder how your mother did it? Better yet, do you wonder how I did it? taking care of you and Al even with a hangover :-). They say we have six senses but you gain another one when you have kids, it is called multi-tasking. It isn't tangible but it just happens.
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