You don't have to be doing what you love to love what you are doing.

Every once in a while I get a glimpse into the lives of people that I went to school with who are following their dreams as singers, actors, performers. It always leaves me with a lump in my throat as I realize that the only singing I do on a daily basis is in the car (where I am promptly told by my kids to stop singing because they want to sing), and when I tuck the kids in bed (where they do allow me to sing, but only to delay going to sleep).

My recent acting experience is limited to making up silly voices for The Cat in the Hat, Goldilocks and various other children’s book characters. The things that were once so much a part of my life have been replaced with much less interesting things like washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning toilets, picking up toys and changing diapers.

I sometimes long for the feeling of fulfillment that came from doing the things that I love to do every day. At those times I ask myself if being a mom is worth the sacrifices that I make. The answer comes when…

• Becca gets up in the morning looking beautiful with her tousled hair and sleepy eyes
• I hear the pitter patter of Isak’s little feet as he runs through the house
• Becca rides her princess bike around the neighborhood (complete with princess elbow pads, knee pads and helmet)
• Isak asks me what time it is (even though he really has no idea what “10:30” means)
• I watch Becca dancing in her ballet class
• Isak sings
• Becca sings
• Isak laughs
• Becca laughs
• Isak prays
• Becca prays
• Becca “reads” books to Isak
• Becca wants me to hold her because she is frightened by the scary character in a movie
• Isak wants me to hold him just because
• we walk through the grocery store saying “I want the tiger book. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha (like Dracula) because the kids think it’s funny…
  

All of these moments remind me that the satisfaction of doing the things that I personally love to do is far overpowered by the fulfillment of using my skills and talents to shape the lives of the two little people who rely primarily on me to show them the way in this world.

So, while washing dishes may not be on my list of things that I love to do, it’s okay because I do love being a mom who washes dishes.

(I posted this on a family blog last fall. I have been thinking about it a lot lately and decided to share it once again. Sometimes I just need these little reminders of how blessed I am to be a mom. It's not easy, but it's worth it.)

American Girls

Twice a year we take a trip to Chicago with our friends, Mark and Kami Starnes. We love these trips! We go every spring and every fall. It has become a tradition that we won't easily break.

This year for our spring trip we decided to take all of our kids with us and take the girls to the American Girl Place. It was amazing! First we went to the little stage production that they do. In the show they introduce the "American Girls" through music and dance. I loved the show because it promoted values that are important to me and that I hope someday will be important to my little girl. I actually cried! I sat there thinking, "Am I the only dork crying?" Of course, I can always count on Kami to get weepy with me. Thanks, Kami!

Of course we did some shopping and Becca picked out a ballerina dress for herself and her Bitty Baby. I had a hard time getting her to settle on what she wanted. She walked into the Bitty Baby section and just started grabbing boxes. I said, "Now Becca, you are going to have to choose just one thing, so why don't you just look at everything there is and then make a decision." With each item we looked at she announced, " I want that!" She even wanted the things that she already has! She was just completely overwhelmed! So much like her mother.
For lunch we had made reservations at the American Girl Cafe. No detail was overlooked in the decorating, service, menu, etc. We felt very special.

Every few minutes Becca would reach over and offer her doll a bite or a drink. I was so darned cute!
We really weren't celebrating a birthday, but we wanted this day to be extra special, so we just pretended. We ordered the birthday package for both girls. It was only a few dollars more and we got a birthday cake and gifts. Very fun! In our defense, Makara's birthday was only a couple of weeks away, so we justified it.
It was such a great day! I loved getting to do this with Becca. Adding to my list of things that I would do if I were rich, I would give as many little girls as possible the opportunity to spend a day at American Girl Place with their moms.
While we were at American Girl, the boys all went to Shedd Aquarium. We met back up in Schaumburg to go to IKEA (of course!) and then we headed home.

After spending a weekend with almost-nine-year-old Makara, Becca is now 5 going on 12. Makara is so good to her. Aren't friends great!

Easter

On the Saturday of Easter weekend there was an Easter egg hunt at the church building. It was snowing outside, so the hunt was moved into the cultural hall. There aren't a lot of strategic hiding places in a cultural hall, so the eggs were strewn about on the floor. Here are Becca, Isak and the other children from church waiting for the big race for candy to begin!
Isak was so excited to dig into his candy that once he had a few eggs he just stopped in the middle of everything and started cracking open eggs. As you can see, there were still plenty of eggs to be gathered, but he was more interested in the instant gratification of eating the candy!Becca got run over by a couple of older, over zealous girls right when the egg hunt started and spent most of the time crying. She ended up with very few eggs as a result. As an apology, one of the girls that had been involved in the mishap shared some of her eggs with Becca, so she ended up coming out pretty well. Isak had a nearly empty basket, but a full mouth. He was happy.We have church at 9:00, and the Easter Bunny was thoughtful enough to wait until we were at church to come deliver baskets. When we came home we found Becca and Isak's baskets in the sunroom. They received basketballs, movies, sunglasses and more candy.
The Easter Bunny even remembered mommy and daddy this year! We were surprised to find (well, at least daddy was) a new garage door opener in our garage. The Easter Bunny must have noticed that ours has been broken for the past couple of years and that we have just been too cheap to buy one! One of my favorite parts of our Easter tradition is buying new spring Sunday clothes for everyone. Becca was beautiful and Isak was so handsome. Unfortunately we didn't capture any good pictures of them before we went to church.

Even more wonderful than getting new toys, candy and new clothes was when Becca asked if she could give the family home evening lesson and proceded to tell the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus. She had every detail just right. She was certainly taught well in Primary that day!

Spring Break

For Jeremy's spring break we had made plans to return to Williamsburg, VA (we were there last summer for a Matis family reunion) with Jeremy's brother, Jason, and his family. The Jason Matis family ended up not being able to go, but we love to travel, so we decided to make a go of it anyway. Any doubts that we should follow through with the trip left when I realized that it would be sunny and in the 60's in Virginia the week of spring break and still cold and snowy here in Indianapolis.

Becca and Isak love to take trips as much as Jeremy and I do and behave amazingly well in the car. Of course sometimes you have to get a little creative to make a 12 hour drive fun, but they have no problem with that!
Although we had spent a couple of days at Colonial Williamsburg over the summer, we wanted to return and check out a couple of things that we had missed before. Jeremy got to be on the jury of a mock trial at the courthouse, which was very interesting. One case in particular really made us appreciate the religious freedom that we now enjoy.
I wanted to check out the Yankee Candle store in Williamsburg, which is Yankee's flagship store. The rest of the family wasn't extremely excited about going, but it turned out to be way cool. There was like a little world inside the store with blue sky, fountains, shops, etc. This clock tower opened up every half hour and the mice inside put on a little musical show.

The part that I liked best was the Holiday store where it is perpetually Christmas. It even snows!

We spent one day visiting Jamestown and Yorktown. I'm ashamed to admit that we didn't really know the significance that either one of these places played in the history of our country. It was very enlightening to visit and learn about these important historical landmarks. Both of these pictures were taken at Jamestown. We ended up not getting any pictures at Yorktown, but there was a great self guided driving tour in Yorktown that we loved!

The highlights of the trip for the kids, although not pictured, were swimming and going to the indoor jumping place. It was great to have our family together for so much time! It made it really tough to send Jeremy out the door to school again the next week, but we are grateful to have had the opportunity to get away and have fun.

Mini Me

While looking at some pictures this morning I came across this one. It seems like a silly picture to have - a basket of laundry? Why would I want to preserve that memory?

Well, those of you who know me and my daughter well know that she is simply a much smaller version of me. Once when my mom was visiting she looked at Becca and said, "Do you have any idea how strange it is to see your grown daughter growing up all over again?"

This basket of laundry illustrates that Becca is, in fact, little Tricia.

Becca and Isak love playing on my bed. They do all sorts of wonderful things up there - fight dragons, escape alligators, build bird nests, etc. The problem is that my bed is also the place where I fold laundry. So, there are times when my bed is covered in folded laundry waiting to be put away. You can imagine my dismay when I have, at times, gone into my bedroom and found my once folded laundry thrown onto the floor as Becca and Isak chant "Two little monkies jumping on the bed..." Let's just say that they have been reminded often that jumping on mom and dad's bed when it is already occupied by folded laundry is not a good choice!

So one morning, after folding laundry and then leaving the room to do something else, I heard that Becca was playing on the bed. I stormed into the room prepared to exile her to time out and found all of the laundry that had been on the bed "neatly" placed in the basket. And thus the transformation of Becca into Mini Me was complete. Now she too will enjoy a life full of compulsive cleaning and frustration over an always-too-messy house.