The Struggles & Vocation of Motherhood

Today, I have my first piece over at Catholic Exchange!  I'm sharing a bit about the vocation of marriage and motherhood and how the struggles they bring are exactly what I need. 

This afternoon, I spent three hours trying to put my daughter down for a nap.  (And she didn’t end up sleeping at all.)  This is a common occurrence in my daily routine and I usually spend the hours lamenting my wasted time.  But today, I chose a different approach: I spent the time contemplating how this particular struggle can bring me closer to God.

Recently, I’ve begun to embrace the struggles of marriage and motherhood.  The sweet, tender kisses of a toddler, the late night laughs with my husband (usually over a bowl of ice cream), and picturesque fall days spent together as a family are wonderful.  They remind me of God’s love and care, his beauty and blessings.  But they don’t challenge me.  If anything, they make me complacent in my faith.  When everything here on earth seems perfect, I stop striving quite so hard for heaven...continue reading at Catholic Exchange

And while I'm here, can I tell you a bit about my day yesterday?  It started out a bit awful - running late to a doctor's appointment due to heavy traffic, had to drive directly to the office instead of dropping off Lucia at a friends, only to find out that I was actually early - two hours early - for the appointment.  Not a recipe for a great day.  But I headed over to my friend's house to wait for my appointment, which helped immensely.  Then, when I got to my appointment on time, I waited 50 minutes to actually see the doctor.  Which at other times might bother me, but my friend had just gifted me a book on miscarriage and 50 minutes in a comfy chair in a waiting room with a book and no toddler was actually more akin to heaven than pre-mommy me could ever imagine.  

Then I returned to pick Lucia up to be told that she was "wonderful" the whole time, despite the fact it was in the middle of naptime and I expected a meltdown, AND she ate a sizable lunch in the midst of a nearly month-long hunger strike.  My friend lives right by Trader Joe's (and we do not) so we swung by on the way home for "just a few things".  $100 and a full cart later, Lucia was still in a great mood sans nap and yesterday proved to be one of the best days in quite a while, capped off with dinner with friends.  I guess that just goes to show you never know.  And if I had let the initial doctor appointment stress get to me, I would probably have ended up recording this in the annals of awful days. 

Random picture of toddler vs. burger.  Back when toddler actually ate food.