Journals from a Young Mom

If you follow my blog, you may recall me writing a time or two that I have journal ed since I was 14 years old. Some years more than other years. I encourage everyone to pick up a pen and paper and get writing. Pulling these dusty books on back shelves will have me sitting on the floor for hours reading and realizing how much I have forgotten, but also how much God has done in my life. As this is Emily's birthday month I came across this entry. From the heart of a 25 year old mom:

Monday June 24Th, 1991

Dear Father,
I am sure there are many mothers in town who can thank you and smile at the messes their preschoolers make. A valuable lesson was learned this morning. Bless Emily's heart and her sweet intentions to please...a few examples...
-Carried bowl to counter and dropped it, big mess
-Pushed a chair up to the sink to help with dishes, suds and water everywhere
-Wanted to peel her own banana, peel and banana all over the floor which I stepped on
-Pulled all her clothes out of the drawers to dress herself
-Pulled all the clean dish towels out of the drawer to clean up water and suds
Okay one important detail here, this all occurred before 9:00am. My frustration level was beginning to peak, but a silent prayer of patience was quickly answered, thank you God.

I enjoyed watching Emily work with me to clean up each mess. We did it together and togetherness is a valuable word in this family. Emily will continue to help out over and over and over and over I will have to practice patience. That building of patience may be needed later on down the road. So I smile in my heart and thank you dear Jesus for answering my prayer as you tenderly mold me and shape me into the mother I am to be to my children, Amen

What I did not know at this time in my mothering is that Emily, out of all my children would be the mess maker and each mess coming out of extreme acts of creativity. That patience in practice as a young mom has truly helped me over the years. I just laugh over the "mess" factor because we laugh even now over the mess she makes even when baking in the kitchen, working on little projects, and even when she takes time to spend with her brothers she gets them involved in some kind of cool project with a trail of a mess. Today I don't get so rattled and truly she was breaking ground in what was to come...three boys.

Again, Pie Sweety if you are reading this know that I have embraced you mess and all.