From Failure To Victor

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There are days when I feel like no matter how much I do for my kids, I am not able to feel victorious as a mother. Yesterday was one such day.

Yesterday started with a husband who had the stomach flu and not feeling so hot myself. I got the kids to school and then proceeded to fold piles and piles of laundry. As noon rolled around, I had to pick up Reed from kindergarten and get started on three science fair displays (all of them due the next day.) I felt like a ping pong ball, running from school to the store and back home, several times over. Helping kids with homework, making Rice Krispie treats for Marlie’s class, stocking up on Gatorade for my poor dehydrated husband, trying to get caught up on laundry…it consumed my whole day. Nine o’ clock crept up on me quickly. There I was, still sitting in the middle of the family room, pasting pictures of worms onto a foam board and wondering when the dishes were going to get done. I was silently going over the list of what I had not accomplished while begging the kids to get into bed. I must have looked like a zombie. I sure felt like one.

It was then that Marlie walked into the family room and stopped in front of me. “You are a good mom,” she stated, “and I hope I’m just like you when I have kids.” She didn’t see the floor that was littered with scraps of construction paper, the sink piled with crusty dishes, the bags under my eyes or any of the billion other small failures that were swimming in my head and taunting me. She saw a good mom. Suddenly, the feeling of total failure shrunk to nothing and I became the biggest winner in the world. Sometimes a little recognition is all it takes to make somebody feel victorious. I challenge you all to do that for somebody today. Trust me when I say that it makes all the difference in the world.