Darn that uppity Proverbs 31 woman

Yesterday I was mom-of-the-year. Yep, unofficially but uneqivocably mom-of-the-year. How did I earn such a prestigious title, you ask?

Simple. I made muffins.

Not just plain ol' muffins, mind you. Chocolate chip muffins, and blueberry muffins, in the little-muffin, muffin pan. So cute baby muffins were everywhere, and the two flavors satisfied all the picky eaters in my house.

I had risen early, pre-heated the oven, and quietly set about my muffin-making task without a complaint in the world, just like a good Proverbs 31 girl should do. As the muffins began to get plump and golden, the delicious aroma began to fill the house. And that's when it happened.

My two daughters came bolting down the stairs as if the house were on fire. One of them jumped up and down and screeched in delight, while the other one yelled "yeah, muffins!". Then they paced around the kitchen until the coveted pastries were done, and gobbled them up. Everyone was happy. I was thanked, appreciated and hugged. Even though they acted like I had never fed them breakfast before that morning, it was still awesome.

Soon after, I realized it was time to leave, and told everyone to hurry up, brush their teeth, get their shoes on, get their bookbags together, and grab a snack for school.

Little Michael suddenly realized that he could not find his coat anywhere, even though he had been holding it ten minutes earlier. The coat fairy had apparently stashed his coat somewhere in an invisible closet, again.

Then in the process of his frantic coat search, he accidentally stepped on Kaitlyns toe - you know, the same one she stumped at school the day before, nearly ripping off the entire end of her big toe. It was not a pretty scene. Much drama, accusations of doing it on purpose, and flying bandaids were everwhere.

While all this was going on, Morgan was now realizing that the coat fairy had also taken her coat, and possibly her shoes. She was having trouble locating them while staring at her incoming text messages, thus threats were shared about losing phone privileges if it continued to interfere with life itself.

To add insult to injury, the fact that Michael was going to now potentially be tardy for school - again - because the girls were not ready to leave on time (primarily due to excessive hair-straightening obligations as opposed to muffin eating) - resulted in a bit of heated discussions before we finally made it out the door.

My wonderful mom-of-the-year/Proverbs 31 mommy award fell to the floor and shattered. Calmness, patience, soothing voices and unshakable joy seemed to fly out the window quicker than those band aids had been flying through the kitchen.

Our happy, peaceful, muffin-eating, hug-giving, laugh-sharing moment seemed a distant memory. Life had happened again - or should I just say, another typical school morning happened again.

But as we drove to school, the chaos slowly slipped away, and we had some good discussions about loving one another, being considerate, dealing with friends, boyfriends, and other girly-girly stuff and soon I was mom-of-the-year again - after reminding them about their delicious muffin breakfast, of course.

Although it would be great to be the perfect mom all the time; the mom who never gets mad, irritated, impatient or unreasonable... I know in my heart that God does not expect that type of perfection. I know that He forgives our imperfections and renews His mercies for us daily. And I need that new mercy every day, trust me!

As women, we get so hung up sometimes about the Proverbs 31 woman. We think God actually expects us to be like her. But really, she is simply a woman who fears and reveres the Lord, and tries to live a life that is pleasing to Him. She is a woman whom God included in the bible for us to read about, so that we would know His instructions for living, all the while also knowing that we will fall short, and He will still love us just the same.

God does not expect us to be perfect, without mistakes, never losing our temper and winning a mom-of-the-year award every day. Now Im not saying that it wouldnt be great if our children arose and called us blessed every morning - but lets get real people! Until they are old enough to understand the depth of love from a parent to a child, they will never quite comprehend how hard we try to be good moms. But thats okay - the rewards far outweigh the sacrifices, and motherhood is the greatest joy in my life.

Well, I need to sign off now - headed to the kitchen to make some chocolate chip cookies before the kids get home from school. Im in much need of some hugs and appreciation again, and cookies are a definate guarantee that I will get all of that when they get home! Im also going to dust off my mom-of-the-year award too, just in case I need to hang up it for a brief while, until it falls to the floor again.

Smiles.