Just Because I Complain Sometimes, Doesn't Mean I'm not Grateful

As a mom, especially a stay at home mom with a husband who works very long hours to help support us and a family who lives 700 miles away (except for my sister who is thankfully also here in MN), I feel I have rightfully earned the right to complain once in a while. Look, I get it, things could always be worse. I could be a single mom, I could have a husband in the military who's away for years at a time, I could have no family at all or one who is so messed up I choose for them to not even be a part of my life, I could have an unhealthy child in and out of the hospital all the time, I could be infertile and unable to have any children of my own and so on and so forth. Always knowing that things could be worse and I could really have a lot more bigger and uglier things to complain about does keep me grounded knowing that I truly do live a wonderful life filled with many blessings to be ever so grateful for.

Motherhood is one of the most amazing and beautiful experiences I have ever been blessed with. However, if you want to be real about it too, you can honestly say, as I have no shame in saying, that it's also one of the most challenging "jobs" you'll ever face. Every day is a unique roller coaster with its own surprise twists, turns and sometimes upside down loopty loops! Not one day is perfect, and I'm okay with that because guess what, that's life. If it was perfect, honestly it'd be boring. Some mornings Aiden wakes up hating Liam and wanting nothing to do with him. Ten minutes later they're chasing each other around in the dark with flashlights filling our home with childhood laughter that can make anyone smile on their worst of days. This is exactly what the beauty and amazement of parenthood is all about. Your children will drive you absolutely up the wall and then turn around and do something so sweet and so priceless that makes all the madness worth every headache at the end of each day. These moments I'm forever grateful for. They keep me sane and always remind me why I love what I do and that even though life in general can be crazy and insane while throwing us curve balls left and right, it's the beautiful moments in life that end up shining through all the darkness and those are the moments that keep us grateful for the lives we have and the lives we're going to continue to live in the future.

Three of my most precious blessings that I'll forever be grateful for!