Sunday, April 14, 2013

A Working Mom Update

Baby girl's 4-month benchmark came and went and this working mom didn't even have time to post a picture for comparison....and now she's nearly 5 months!!!

This new stage has been (mostly) fun. Nora is rolling over. She is babbling a lot more, including consonants. It sounds an awful lot like she's saying "Mama." :-) She continues to get into giggle fits, which melt my heart. She loves to blow spit bubbles (we may or may not have taught her that!). She's tried rice cereal and baby oatmeal for the first time. She grabs everything and everything goes into the mouth — especially while she continues to teeth. She continues to grow stronger and become more coordinated and she weighs more than 13 pounds — she's officially looking like our chunky monkey.

Being a working mom is rewarding and exhausting. Parenthood is painfully teaching me so many valuable life lessons. I'm grieving the end of my selfishness. It's not about me anymore. I figured that out the first time I got sick. Try taking care of a sick child while you yourself have bronchitis. Not. Fun.

Also, my house may never be clean again. I count it a success when I can put a warm meal on the table. I'm having to learn to live in the moment and just enjoy spending time with baby girl. The house...well, I've had to come to terms with the fact that it will never again be clean all at once.

In parenthood, you learn to appreciate the little things in life. After several sleepless days in a row, getting to sleep until 5 a.m. made me throw my hands up in praise to Jesus. And, speaking of Jesus, I've had to give a lot to Him these days. I realized I was perpetually disappointed because I don't feel like I'm the perfect mom, perfect wife, perfect worker or perfect house manager. And, news flash, I'm NOT!!!! When I finally realized why I was perpetually despairing, I was able to identify this problem as a sin issue. We are not called to be perfect. Jesus is perfect and I must learn to rest in that. I don't have to be the perfect wife because Jesus alone meets my husband's needs perfectly. I don't have to be the perfect mother, because Nora must see that she needs Jesus. What good is having a perfectly clean home if I haven't fostered the relationships in my life and have no one to share my home with?

And then there's the issue of REST. Just listened to a timely sermon that reminded me that my soul longs for a kind of rest that is promised to Christians. Thank goodness. One day I will experience satiating rest. Until then, I will continue to strive to do things that are pleasing to Christ. And I will continue to be pulled in a lot of different directions.

Just read a Facebook status the other day that said if you don't have time to read scripture and pray, then you're busier than God ever intended you to be. I know this is a busy season for me, but I'm also trying to figure out if I just have too much on my plate and, if so, what could possibly go....

Pray for me, I'm a work-in-progress!

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