On Being Present and Licking the Bowl: Celebrating Everyday Motherhood

Happy day friends!  First of all, I just want to acknowledge that I never expected to write a post with the word “licking” in the title on my blog.  But, it’s what it is, so here we are.  Cool?  Cool.

When I first started blogging many years ago and well before Live Well Play Together was born, blogging was more like a personal journal for me.  It was full of events and things that I wanted to remember and it was a way for family and friends to keep up with the things we were doing.  And while I still share lots of things that we’re up to and the activities we do around here, it’s been a while since I’ve just shared a personal story with y’all.

And that’s a little bit crazy to me since sharing and community is so important to me.

So today, I want to share a little snippet from a recent morning with you all.  It was just a small thing, but something that really resonated with me and it came straight from the mouth of my sweet boy.  “Did you used to do this with your Gram Gram?”

And it stopped me right in my tracks and reminded me to savor every little bit of this season.

A Little Bit of Background

But first, a little background.  I am a stay-at-home mama to two really wonderful boys.  This is hands-down my favorite job, but I’d be totally kidding you if I said that we had it all together or that everyday was smooth.  I’m STILL adjusting to having two kids home with me all day and working hard to find a proper, working balance between all the facets of motherhood, marriage, and home.

One of the things that I have tried to be really intentional about though, is making sure to focus part of every morning when we’re home to a “morning activity” with just Little and me.  Sometimes it’s an art project or craft.  Other days, it’s playing with animals or trains.  Sometimes it’s working together in the kitchen to make play-dough or a sweet treat.  This time is really special for both of us.

But even so, there are days when I can be distracted even during this time with him.

And then one morning we decided to make chocolate chocolate chip muffins.  [Although, to be fair, Little specifically asked for chocolate chocolate chocolate chip muffins with chocolate…he is his mother’s son when it comes to his sweet tooth.]

You Don’t Want to Eat Ingredient Soup!

Little actually asked me the night before if we could make the muffins right then and there and I told him we needed to wait until the morning.  It was close to bed time and I knew they wouldn’t have time to cook.  And no way was he going to eat chocolate that close to bed time.

Instead, we looked up all the ingredients to be sure we had what we needed.  We talked about mixing them up and how all the ingredients would make “ingredient soup”.  We’d need to cook it in order for it to turn into tasty muffins.  “You don’t want to eat only the soup, do you?” I asked.  And he agreed to wait until the morning.

The next day, when the littlest went down for his morning nap, I came downstairs to start baking with Little.  He loves scooping and dumping the ingredients.  And he always tests just a “little taste” of the butter or chocolate chips before adding them to the mix.  Without fail.

We put the muffin liners in our pan and carefully scooped the ingredient soup into each muffin well for baking.

And then it was time to lick the bowl.

Well, it was time for me to lick the bowl – Little had a small taste, but wasn’t interested.

As I was enjoying the little bits of chocolate muffin mix left on the spatula, I mentioned how I used to do that when I was a little girl and I made sweet treats with his Gram Gram (my mom). Without missing a beat, he looked up and said,

“And Mama, did you used to do that with YOUR Gram Gram, too?”

And it stopped me in my tracks.  Because yeah.  I did do that with my Gram Gram.  And those are sweet and special memories that I don’t ever want to lose.  It’s been years since my grandmother passed away, but even still, I have such wonderful memories with her.  Baking together, picking pecans from her old pecan tree, learning to roller blade in her drive way, walking a few doors down to the post office for the mail or a few doors in the other direction for an orange sorbet push pop.

And these are the same things I want my boys to remember about their childhood.  I want them to remember a mom who is present.  Not necessarily the perfect Pinterest Mom, but a mom who is intentional about being with them and creating fun experiences together.

And really, how blessed am I to be able to create these memories with my boys and our family in this season?  Sure. it’s messy.  It’s chaotic sometimes.  I’m tired.  But I am so thankful.  So incredibly thankful.

THESE are the “good old days”

Right now.  Today.  This is what we have.  We don’t know what tomorrow holds.  Let’s remember that these are the good old days right now, before they get away from us.

I don’t know if I’ll ever really find the perfect balance, but nonetheless, these are the things I want to remember.

Some Encouragement for You Today

So, I don’t know where you are today.  Maybe you are rocking it today (and I hope that you are – and if you have some tips, send ’em over!).  But maybe you are feeling overwhelmed and like you have a thousand things to do today (and you might even have a thousand things to do today).  Or maybe you’re not bad, but not great either and just kind of in a rut.  Perhaps you feel pulled in lots of directions today and like you’re not really fully anywhere (been there!).

But, I hope you’ll take just a minute to stop and think about the things that you want to remember about these days and this season.  Because it’s passing by quickly.  Way too quickly.

Embrace it.  Make some messes.  Clean them up.  Do one thing at a time and tell somebody you love them today.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

What is ONE THING that you want to remember about the season you’re in right now?  What is something that you’ve been learning lately?

[Chocolate chocolate chip muffin recipe here]