Proud to be a Mama

(Please excuse me for a minute. This blog is still a baby, and I'm still stumbling my way around, trying to figure out her voice. I want this to be a place of inspiration and idea sharing...and so far, all I've managed to do is share lots of OTHER people's ideas, and a few write-ups on Food Revolution. I'm looking for a few guest posters, so if you'd be interested, PLEASE leave a comment! Any topic, housewife related, is great. Green living, playtime ideas, Joy in the Journey moments...anything you have to share.)

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to road trip with a few good friends. It was a short trip - just a 90 minute drive into the city. We were there to listen to a visiting church leader from Salt Lake City host a discussion with local leaders from the three closest states. It was a great meeting, and I learned a lot...but what I enjoyed most was spending three hours in a small car with three awesome mamas. We we noisy, we were laughing, we were sharing stories...and we were reveling in being mamas. Very few of the stories involved cute kids or proud moments. Our theme seemed to be, "Oh my goodness, the craziest thing happened." These stories were followed by relieved ELATION when we found out that the story was in no way, shape or form unique. Kids talk back? Yup. Mine, too. Kids throw kicking, screaming tantrums? Yup...just last night. I think the highlight was when one mother-to-a-sassy-8 year old girl actually broke out her notebook and took notes while another mother (who USED to be a sassy 8 year old girl) told her all the things that would have helped her when she was a child. It was glorious.

After I had dropped off half of the noisy carload, I had a few minutes to talk alone with one of the quietest moms in our group. She is a talented woman, and the mother of two little boys. Our conversation turned to high school reunions. My ten year is coming up, and hers was just last year. When she was in high school, her classmates assumed that by the ten year reunion, she would be married with a brood of 9 or 10 kids already. After she graduated, she took a different path - school instead of marriage, and then a move to the Big City where she worked as a professional seamstress (a stitch setter, actually) in the garment district. She had her career laid out for her, and figured that by the time the 10 year reunion rolled around her classmates would be astonished at her fabulous career, instead of her army-sized brood.

Well, life's funny. She ended up meeting a wonderful man while she lived in the city, and now is a stay-at-home mom to two adorable little men. She didn't attend her ten year, because she realized that all of the people she wanted to see...were still in regular contact. She had nothing to prove.

Think back to your high school years. Do you have anything to prove to your classmates? Did you exceed their expectations? Meet them? Do you care? Are you where you thought you'd be?

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