Today in the UK it is Mother's Day!
And this week I've had the best Mothers Day present ever!
All my chicks are back home for a few days, yay!
It's been so good to hang out together, laugh, be silly, and have precious family time, including the future sons-in-law!
The times when we can all be together at the same time in the same place are becoming fewer, so we make sure we make up for it when we can!
I'm not only blessed with a faithfully loving mum, but I also get the privelege of being a mum, 3 times over!
I was so excited in my first pregnancy to become a mum, but nothing prepared me for how tough the exhausting role of mother would be!
To be honest, I found the earlier years much harder than the teenage ones! I continually lacked confidence, never knew if I was doing the right thing, perpetual exhaustion, extreme loneliness and post natal depression all played their part.
Despite it being the toughest job I've ever had (the wages and pension benefits are rubbish!) it's also been (& still is) the most rewarding. The thing about having kids is they force you to go beyond yourself, to step outside your comfort zones and defaults and face your weaknesses and selfishness.
I'm thankful to my girls for stretching me and making me the person I am today. They inspire me every day and I'm ridiculously proud of the beautiful women they are, inside and out.
To all you mothers out there, you are amazing, keep going. It will be hard at times, but the rewards are deep and infinite. A great mother isn't perfect (no such woman exists), she's the one who gets up each morning and invests, sacrifices, referees, feeds, counsels, advises, all for no thanks, and then gets up again the next morning to do it all again!
You are awesome!