This Mom Thing

In my scrapbook I have a picture that I drew when I was in first grade.  My assignment was to draw a picture of what I wanted to be when I grew up, my picture is a brunette lady wearing a white and red dress with matching red accessories, above the picture it says, "MOM."  I really do feel blessed daily to be living my lifelong dream of being a mom to my 3 little boys...especially when they look like this:

But let's be honest here, most of the time it looks more like this:

And this:

And even this:

Yesterday was one of those days...we had only been going 30 mins. and I had already lost my temper more than once trying to get everyone dressed and Ethan to school on time.  It was one of those days where I just felt exhausted, at 4:00 pm all I wanted to do was go to bed...but we had soccer practice, dinner, babysitting for a friend, bedtime, a messy house to clean, and a preschool lesson to prepare for the next morning.  It was one of those days where I was worried sick for my kindergartner, when he teared up telling me his struggle to make new friends and being mistreated by a peer...I don't like feeling like I can't just solve his problems for him.  It was one of those days where by the end of the day I felt overwhelmed and guilty with all of the many things I'm failing to do.  

And then there was today.  I woke up feeling tired.  I think fatigue is just part of my current life (Quinn has yet to sleep through a night and the sweet kid is almost 11 months old, I suppose this has caught up with me).  But I was determined to be more patient and more kind.  We had preschool at our house, picked up Ethan from school and then went with some friends to the Denver Zoo.  Even though it was a full, tiring day I felt rejuvenated at the end of it.  I had so much fun just enjoying time with my boys.  The weather was perfect and the zoo was empty so my boys could run and explore and tell me more animal facts than I ever needed to know (thank you Wild Kratts).  

The boys loved feeding the "ping-pongs" as Caden called them.

Quinn just loved being outside all day!

Just 2 monkeys watching the orangutans! 

This tiger was going crazy roaring and clawing at his own reflection.

Just a hippo whispering sweet nothings in Ethan's ear.

This little guy finally fell asleep at 5:00, just too exciting for a nap.

Thankful for such a great day to recharge my batteries.  Love livin' the dream!