Good Mommy!

A little bit ago, I wrote a post about "bad" mommies and all of the "questionable" things that we do to survive or simply because it works! Tonight, though, it's my turn to get up with Josiah (as always) after Jesse got up with him during the weekend. And, even though he slept 8-9 hours at a time for Jesse (as always), I am up after only an hour and half of sleep trying to get Josiah to go back to bed. Jesse works extremely hard for our family and is an awesome dad to Josiah. I am so thankful for everything that he does. But it's the moments right now when he is sleeping and I am trying to stay awake that I need to recognize all of the LITTLE things that we mommies do to take care of our families...those things that we don't always get credit for... things that I need to give myself a little credit for because I could use a pick-me-up right now...

• I'm the one who gets up with Josiah 5 out of 7 nights of the week.
• In addition to getting up with him each time he wakes during the night, I'm also the one who stays up with him until he's ready to go to bed (even if I just laid down to go to sleep and he suddenly is wide awake).
• Furthermore, I'm the one to get up with him in the morning whenever he decides it's time to rise, regardless of how much sleep I got the night before. (Can you tell I'm tired?!?!?)
• I'm the one who still spends almost all day Saturday and Sunday taking care of Josiah by myself too, now that Jesse is in school and needs the day to do homework. In fact, even though I have stuff I'm trying to get done as well, I take Josiah with me 99% of the time and make do just so Jesse can get his stuff done.
• I'm the one who gets up 2 1/2 hours before church, picks out Josiah's clothes, packs his entire diaper bag for the day (including all of his food, toys, and clothes) all while trying to shower and get dressed myself allowing Jesse to sleep until 30 minutes before we have to go. All he has to do is get himself dressed and dress Josiah in the clothes that I have already laid out.
• I'm the one that washed all of the dishes the other day, by hand (as I held my breath), after we ran out of dish-washing detergent and our sink started to reek of rancid food.
• I'm the one who handles the finances and pays the bills and tries to figure out how to manage things when the numbers don't add up.
• I'm the one who has to sometimes work 12 hour days or take on more daycare clients at a time in addition to caring for Josiah 24/7, working for only $3 an hour, because I'm trying to do the best I can to contribute to our family's finances.
• I'm the one that does all of the laundry and tries to keep the house fairly clean and organized while caring for kids all day too.
• I'm the one who knows how many diapers or cans of formula we have on hand, if we need trashbags or laundry detergent, when bills are due, how long Josiah has slept today, what time Jaydon and Zoe need to be picked up, and what gift we need to buy to be ready for that birthday party next weekend- multi-tasking through everything!
• I even take out the garbage when Jesse forgets to, even though that's always been his household chore.
• And I try to be sensitive to how Jesse is feeling in the midst of working full time and going to school full time, helping him with his math homework, allowing him to have time to himself with the guys or playing video games, and giving him massages if he's stressed, even taking Josiah back into my arms when he's not calming down as quickly for Jesse.
• I'm the one who drove all over town and made numerous phone calls to get "Josian's" name corrected on his birth certificate and SS card. And I still have to do it again tomorrow because it's not finished yet.
• And I did all of this because I'm the one who filed our taxes for us, collecting all of the paperwork and sitting down to answer all of the questions myself. Just as I've done for the past 3 years.
• I'm the one who loaded Josiah up, taking everything we needed to care for/entertain him so that Jesse could devote the entire day to homework. I drove to the grocery store in our car that's acting up, toted Josiah in his REALLY heavy carseat through the rainy parking lot, browsed the store for the needed ingredients, talked Jesse through his crisis moment when our internet got shut off because we couldn't afford the bill and he needed it for homework- all while standing in the baking aisle, drove to the gas station- not even sure if I had enough gas to make it- and had to unload Josiah and carry him in the store just to pay for the gas, then making it to my mom's house by 11am to spend the entire day balancing my time between caring for Josiah and baking the most fantastic cake for our women's group at church. 
• Everyone thought my cake was really great, and it was the first one I ever made.
• But even though I am exhausted, I do feel joy in knowing that I've worked hard for my family and am appreciated by my husband. I'm the one who gets a special hug and kiss when he walks in the door and says, "Wow! The house looks really great! Thank you for everything you did."
• And, even though it can be overwhelming to feel that the mass majority of child-rearing belongs to me, I'm also the one that Josiah smiles at more quickly and more often than anyone else. In fact, I'm the one who he's smiling at right now with eyes barely open. I'm the one that calms him down faster. I'm the one who gets to all of his milestone moments for the first time. And, now that Josiah is starting to prefer certain people or pick and choose who he wants to go to, I am the one he holds out his arms to. I believe that we'll always have a special connection because he's Mommy's Little Man.