Everything

Being a stay-at-home mom is a challenge. It is not easy. It is monotonously grungy work. 

There are days when you are bored out of your skull, starved for an adult conversation. There are days when you have had all the conversation you can stand and you would sell your right foot for a hour long soak in a tub with no noise or interruptions. When it rains or snows for weeks on end and you are all stuck in the house, without the option of sending anyone outside to play. When everyone wakes up on the wrong side of bed and there is fighting, tattling, crying, whining without stop all day. When you are dead tired from being up all night with babies and you would love for someone to come babysit them for you for just a few hours so you could possibly shower, or clip your toenails, or just sit motionless on the couch and prop your feet up. You wipe dirty bottoms from sun up to sun down. You clean a room, just to have someone walk right behind you and mess it up again. You are their doctor, cook, housekeeper, babysitter, drama critic, nutritionist, chauffeur, personal secretary, maid, substitute horse, seamstress, floor show, and therapist. You alone bear the brunt of every single one of their daily problems and needs. You are their everything. 

You are their everything. 

You are their comfort. Their joy. The person who has the single most influence on their life. You get to see every milestone firsthand. You get to see the first smile. The first laugh The first step. The first word. You get to share the joys of their day. You get to be there to help them learn to color, to use a spoon, to potty train, to tie their shoes, to crawl, to navigate the tricky waters of life. You can be there with them for every moment of their day. You can snuggle on the couch and read books any time you want. Every time they holler "Watch this!" you are right there to applaud. You can kiss their sweaty hair, their sticky faces, their dirty fingers, their wrinkled toes any time of the day that you want. 

You will sacrifice for them in ways they won't appreciate till they have children of their own. You won't have a life of your own, a career of your own, an identity of your own. Your life is their life. 

But that is what I want my life to be about. To me, that is everything.