Working Mom

Well the word is in and I will not be able to take the severance. I will continue to be a working mom.
For those of you out there who are there with me....you know how hard it is. You get up in the morning at the butt crack of dawn and try to fit in a little alone time with yourself. Maybe you exercise or try to catch up on the news. Then you get in the shower, get dressed for work, get the kids up and dressed and then you feed them breakfast. You try to fit in a little housework and then out the door you go. You hurry the kids to school, we pray and read the Bible in the car on the way. You drop the kids off and silently pray another prayer that they will be safe and properly cared for your absence. You trust someone else to teach your child and take care of them for the 8+ hours you will be away from them. Then it is off to work. You change "hats" and put on the business woman hat. In the office you go. You answer a hundred emails every morning and the phone starts ringing with this problem and then that problem that needs your immediate attention. You work and work and work. Your brain is ready to burst! If you and your family have doctor and dentist appointments that need to be made you try to sneak that in at your desk by calling the offices in between the other calls that are coming and going. You pay your bills and balance your checkbook on your small 30 minute lunch break. You try to fit in anything you can during the few breaks you get during the day. Never taking the breaks or lunches to actually relax. If the cars need repair you also try to arrange those from your desk as well. You use your personal days and vacation days not for the purpose they were intended but to fulfill these appointments at the dentist, doctor, mechanic, etc. At 5PM, if you are lucky, you have finished your work at your desk and you can leave the office. On the way home you must stop to get gas, milk, bread,etc. You walk in the door at home and are met immediately with the what's for dinners, help me with my homework, and the "honey did you call and take care of that one thing for me today?". Ah....you get all the answers taken care of as you hurriedly try to prepare something, healthy, fast, easy, frugal and tasty for your family. Several times you find yourself shedding a couple of tears because there just isn't enough of you. By the time you get supper on the table it is at least 6:30. Now if there is a game or practice or church or somewhere else thing you have to be at....well you somehow juggle this faster to get there on time. You eat and try your very best to put your most beautiful smile on your face as you talk with your family about their day. After all even though you work....you want them to know that you love them and are concerned about their day. No one asks about yours....but that is okay....afterall you are the mom. Then you clean up the supper dishes, pack tomorrow's lunches....as the children complain that they don't want that for lunch. You sweep the house, clean the bathroom, put away the laundry, and then it is time for baths. You get jammies out and toothbrushes ready. Help them all get ready for bed and then you realize that you didn't watch any special movie with them, or play a game with them yet. So you sigh deeply and pray that God will give you just a little more manna because your day isn't over yet. You smile, snuggle and play for awhile and realize that the kids must go to bed if they are going to be worth anything the next morning. So off to bed you send them with kisses, prayers and if you are blessed that day....a story. You put your own jammies on take the animals out for one last time before bed. You make sure everything is locked up tight and you layout some meat for tomorrow's dinner. You go and crawl in beside your already sleeping husband and try to relax but then you realize that you forgot to call that friend who is sick. You jump up and lay out an extra meal to fix for your sick friend's family and realize that in the morning you must get up a little earlier to fix their dinner as well. As you walk by your child's homework is sitting out so you check that and note any problems to go over with her in the morning. You realize that you didn't put make any laundry detergent and your are almost out so you grate soap and get all the ingredients together. You boil and stir and mix and ta dah you have laundry detergent to sit out overnight so it will be ready for the next day's wash. You lay out ingredients to make bread tomorrow and feed your sourdough starter. Now you are ready for bed. You crawl back in the bed utterly exhausted only to find that hubby has woke up and....well you pray for even more manna from heaven as your day isn't quite over yet.

For us working mothers everywhere....let us pray for strength from heaven.