Like every mama, I have hundreds of beautiful staged photographs of my children, that to me could earn them modeling contracts at the local kids clothing store.
This isn't one of them...it's not even a "good" picture. In fact, on a number of levels it could be downright embarrassing.
Instead of its flaws, though, I see a moment in time that captures the essence of motherhood more perfectly than any other photograph I own.
It's hard to remember these days, but back "then" I was always doing AT LEAST four things at once. It might look like I'm only nursing a baby and potty training a toddler, but I had dinner in the oven and loads of laundry in the washer AND dryer. The eyes in the back of my head were off duty.
While I was training my daughter in The Way She Should GO, while my baby boy was--God love him--transferring my pregnancy fat to rolls on his thighs, I was doing what every young mom does: whatever it took to survive the day...sometimes the moment. I'm living testimony to the mantra "this too shall pass" (thankfully, sometimes that goes for the "bad", and with a twinge of regret, sometimes the "good").
What I know for certain is cat-and-knife juggling is easy compared to parenthood.
Now, with two teens and a tween, they don't trip on my toes so often...they step on my heart....
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