Mother's Day

I am so far behind on my blogging, I'm not even terribly sure where to start. But Mother's Day was yesterday, so while it's fresh in my mind, I'll just start there.

In the Barnard household the most important part of a celebration is the food. As much as we pretend that isn't what it's all about, we're just kidding ourselves.

My one request for Mother's Day is that I didn't want to have any responsibilities, Aaron would be in charge for the day. And goodnight, that boy did not let me down.

After church Aaron made brunch. Homemade waffles with berries and cream.

Yes, I requested that this picture be taken, because those waffles were a sight to behold. I won't tell you how many I had, because that is just between me and the scale at my doctor's office.

We all crashed and took Mother's Day naps and woke up to take a quick stroll outside in the gorgeous weather.

 The girl that made me a Momma. We're still perfecting the smiling technique.

Aaron then did all of the dishes from earlier and started preparing the Mother's Day feast. I will have you know that he always cooks with a towel on his shoulder. Always. I love it.

I am no food photographer, but this meal had to be documented. Aaron made chicken marsala over spaghetti noodles and mashed potatoes, with snow peas and sourdough bread on the side. Not to mention a little ginger ale for a celebratory toast. He was in the kitchen for a good hour and 45 minutes preparing everything.

And when we were fat and happy and full to the rafters, he got up and did the dishes. Bless him.

With all of the spare time that I had, I was able to reflect back on the moments that I became a mother.

Motherhood wasn't an instantaneous thing for me. It didn't feel that way at least. I didn't immediately feel the weight or responsibility of being a Mom from moment one. It was gradual. The moment I saw Grace was the moment I took the first step towards becoming a Mom. I loved her and felt like she was stitched into my soul. I sobbed when they took her to the nursery for the second night in the hospital. But it was the moments in the trenches over the next two years that would make me a Mom, the moments where I gave up trying to control the situation and got on my knees and let that little thing teach me as much as I was teaching her. The moments where she was at her worst and I loved her more than the fit she was throwing, the moments where I realized how much my Mom loved me. It was in the spiritual moments where she wiped the tears from my eyes because somehow she knew better than me. Those were the moments that made me realize that I was a Mom. I'm still walking down that road, often times stumbling and making mistakes, and laying in bed thinking "Wow, I have no idea what I'm doing," but I am becoming a Mother, understanding and learning more each and every day. That path will become different as we welcome another baby into our family. His different personality and spirit will change our family and change the way that I am a Mother. The unknown of his arrival scares me a little bit, but just like it was with Grace, I know that we'll figure it out together and we'll make it work and it will be better than we could have ever imagined.