mommy vitamin by one of our founding mothers

"Well, knowledge is a fine thing, and mother Eve thought so; but she smarted so severely for hers, that most of her daughters have been afraid of it since. "
— Abigail Adams

I am embarrassed to admit that I didn't know motherhood took such serious smarts. This was one of my pre-children feminist enlightened mindsets. Motherhood, I thought, wasted the minds of intelligent women. There, confession doesn't always feel good. I had no idea how many day-offs (because I believe that every mother needs one in order to keep her sanity) I would spend in the library and bookstore devouring books about early childhood education, nutrition, smart discipline, and household organization. I HAD NO IDEA that motherhood would take all that I had to give and more.

I believe that the most important time in a mommy's day is in scripture and prayer. There is no way that I can have the love, joy, peace, patience etc. that I need unless I am filled with the Spirit, practicing the Presence and LISTENING to the word of Wisdom God desires to give. The other day I overheard Madeline telling Baby this, "I'm going to tell you a story of a bad little girl, and that bad little girl is me." Wow. Did Madeline really believe that she was bad to the core...and that she was defined by that? I believe that it was the Holy Spirit who quickened my mind to catch those words and then to understand what those words meant to Maddie. I pulled Madeline up on my lap, looked her in the eye and said, "Madeline, you are my good girl. Jesus forgives the bad things that we do and then makes us good girls again. YOU ARE A GOOD GIRL." Her face lit up and said in a high pitched voice, "Good girl. Good girl." I spent the next week telling Maddie that she was my "good girl." Each Much of her whininess and acting out began to stop.

Sometimes it "feels" like my prayer time is empty. I haven't really connected. But, it always whets my appetite for more. It makes me thirsty. The kids wake up. I put on my favorite Sara Groves pandora station or Fernando Ortega station and I keep praying through the morning. Other times I have been given wisdom right in the middle of my prayer times for that day's mothering. Sure, sometimes it is a short 5 minutes because of baby's early wake up cry, but always VITAL to prime my listening-to-God ability for the rest of the toddler-paced day.