There's a Reason this Post has No Pictures...

(Update: this is the picture I took and uploaded to make sure our camera could still take and upload pictures.... A million dollars to the person who can correctly identify the 3 things in this picture....)

Her name is Baby L. During breakfast this morning while I was uploading pictures from playing outside and going to the Washington DC temple yesterday, baby L launched herself forward in her booster chair (I swear she pulled an Elasti-Girl move) and managed to grab the camera and then drop it onto the ground. Since the camera was mid-upload, somehow it made all the pictures get lost. Grrrrr... I tried the upload several times after that, restarting the computer and everything, and to no avail. I was slightly irritated.

Contemplating why Mr. N and I ever embarked on this whole "parenthood" journey, I vowed to enroll my kids in daycare and get a job. Let someone else deal with the perpetual chaos, because I was done.

I feel like that a lot sometimes. More so now than ever before.

Motherhood is just so hard sometimes! I feel like the burden placed on a mother's shoulders is so much, and yet more and more keeps being added. I understand that is how you grow, I just wish it wasn't so hard!. Mr. N's burdens aren't any lighter, they are just different. He wakes up at 4:30 am, commutes 2.5 hrs to NYC, attends school for 9 hrs (with a lunch break), commutes 2.5 hrs home, and on top of that has his priesthood responsibilities (he's Ward Clerk), home teaching, an insane wife desperate for a break, and two toddlers at home. I wake up at 5:45, exercise (jog or do Pilate's), read my scriptures, and then am absorbed in taking care of the girls until bedtime. Yesterday I was exhausted from getting up at 4 am, driving for about 5 hrs to go to the temple (we hit horrible DC traffic) with the girls, entertaining them on the grounds while my mom took her turn, then driving 3.5 hrs home. We got home an hour before bedtime and I could see the light at the end of the tunnel (rest). I was desperate for it, and then of course I noticed M had peed her pants, which meant I would have to dismantle the entire car seat to wash it on top of all the other bed time stuff. The light at the end of the tunnel started to fade.

Even more to do.

Then today I happened upon this quote from a talk given my Russel M. Nelson:

“Future happiness and even the future of nations is linked to children. Families with children need to be re-enthroned as the fundamental unit of society. We simply must value children more than we do.”

And here...

"On all sides, the family is under attack. Many wonder if the institution is no longer needed. Our response is certain. If there is any hope for the future of nations, that hope resides in the family. Our children are our wealth; our children are our strength; our children are indeed our future!"

Talk about perspective. I hadn't really thought about it that way, but really all the hopes we have for our future we channel into our children. For us it is helping our children internalize the teachings of Prophets and Apostles and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We hope our daughters will grow up to be strong women of God, who are not afraid to stand up for what is right.

And for me that means enrolling our girls in daycare and "letting someone else handle it" so I can pursue my own interest is not valuing them as I should. I can do more and I can be better.

I loved this quote too:

"Spiritually, we need children as much as they need us. They are our spiritual wealth. Children teach us the joy of building goodness that will outlive our own. They teach us the joy of loving someone more than self. That love lifts one to give from the abundance of one's own life to help a child."

Perspective.

Perspective!

I can do hard things.

And motherhood is hard.

To read the entire article click here

To read The Family: A Proclamation to the World click here