Mother's Day & a 5K

I love Mother's Day.  Some do not.  I am not one of them.  I have always felt like I was a pretty good mom.  Not to pat myself on the back or anything.  But I thought I had always done the best I could.  Would I change a few things if I was to be able to, absolutely.  But for the most part, not bad.  I miss the days of the school made treasures my boys secretly snuck home in their backpacks to give me on Mother's Day.  I still get notes from them, but the ones I would hang on my fridge and admire for days are defiantly missed.  Mother's Day I woke up to watch Music and the Spoken Word and this week's program was about Mothers.  I loved it.  I had tears in my eyes the entire time and I loved the message.  I am including it because it states exactly what I was feeling only in a much better way.  Enjoy...
At the end of a long day, a busy mother sat down for what seemed like the first time since she got out of bed that morning. She was so exhausted she wanted to cry, but she didn’t even have the energy for that. She looked around the room and saw a day’s worth of clutter and too many chores half-done or not even started. "I can’t keep up,” she thought to herself. "There is no end to it, and I’m a failure at all of this.” She felt worn out, used up, and quite unappreciated.

Then her eyes caught hold of a work of crayon art stuck by a magnet to the refrigerator. At the bottom of the drawing was written in a child’s hand, "I love you, Mom.” She saw little handprints on the patio door and realized that someday soon those would disappear and the sweet child who left them would be grown and gone. She felt the lingering warmth of the goodnight hug she received as the last child went off to bed. As tears filled her eyes, the sight of the clutter dimmed, and she saw two things clearly: it was worth it, and she was good enough.

What mother hasn’t felt just as tired and hopeless as this one did? But when we see beyond the demands of daily living, keep a long-range view of things, and recognize the things that matter most, there can come into our hearts the assurance that our efforts are truly worth it, that they are making a difference. What we are doing, though probably not perfect, is surely good enough.

Dear mothers, close your eyes to the clutter, forget for a moment the things you haven’t been able to do, and know that you are loved, that your sacrifice is of great worth, and that you are more than good enough. God bless mothers everywhere.

The best part of my Mother's Day was the call from Bridger.  We were able to Skype with him and words cannot express all the emotions I felt as I could actually see him.  I have never seen him so happy.  He did tell of a few "scary" adventures in his journey.  But he assures me he is safe and protected.  The best surprise of all was when the phone rang again at 10:50 p.m. and he was on the other line with seven minutes left on his calling card and wanting to tell me he loved me and Happy Mother's Day.  Love that boy, who is not that any more.  He is blessing the lives of so many people and in doing so we are being watched over and protected as well.  Today it is only 300 more days until he returns.  I can see that for him it is coming all too quickly...that is what I was afraid of.

Flowers I received from Kylie's mom thanking me for being nice to her family and Happy Mother's Day.  I love Kylie and her cute family, so it isn't hard to be nice to them.  I consider her the daughter I never was able to have.  So we welcome them as one of our own.

I participated in the lamest 5K Walk/Run ever.  With me there were 10 participants total.  All were late and so I thought it wasn't going to happen.  It did and I started after everyone, caught up and passed them and then went farther due to not sure if I was on the final lap.  As I came to the end, this one lady said to me, "aren't you so glad you finished?"  Really, I was actually ahead of all of you.  Oh well, at least I can say I did it and am going to try and continue and do another one.  Maybe next time it will be a for real

I did get a charm for my efforts, I am sure it is Sterling Silver.