Great Job, Mom!

This plate of food is a typical plate of food in our house. It has baked chicken, pasta with a little sauce on top, and a side serving of vegetables. I don't slave over a stove all day, but I do like to make sure I provide a healthy, tasty, attractive dinner for my family. After taking an hour to cook and prepare it, all the while thinking that my kids were going to love it, Isaiah, my outspoken 3 year old walks rights up and voices his opinion. Waiting in anticipation for his "Yummy!" remark, he sticks his chubby little fore finger at each item and says, "I don't like that, or that, or that." My first feeling inside is to take him seriously and be hard on myself for not doing a better job. I know I can't be the only one out there thinking this way. We all want to please our families. I personally love it when I hear positive words from my kids about how good of a job I'm doing, but I can't let that be my only gauge. After one quick second of feeling bad, I began looking around in my kitchen and found the real truth. There was a large watermelon that I bought & cut up (which I hate doing) for Gabe who insisted that he HAD to have it. There was a fourth of July cake that I made for Judah's birthday (which I don't enjoy doing either). There was a waffle maker on my counter top which I used to make homemade waffles with little cut up strawberries in them. The house was clean and dinner was even on a Cars plate. I'm not saying you have to do any of those things to be a good mom, but sometimes we, as moms, have to look around and remind ourselves that we are doing a great job, regardless of whether our kids or anyone else notices. So to all you moms out there, if you care about your child(ren) and try your best to do so, you are doing a great job!