Motherhood

If a woman chooses to stay at home with her children, she has the opportunity of nursing her baby in the peacefulness of her own home, caressing her precious little one, singing sweet lullabies to comfort and please the child’s deepest emotional desires. She can offer them the restfulness of long, quiet naps in their own bedrooms. She has time to enrich the home environment with beautiful sights and smells-from the aromas of homemade soup bubbling on the stove to beautiful pictures in books-and arrange outings that foster budding intellects and awaken curiosity. And she has the flexibility to change her schedule to respond to teachable moments-those times when children’s natural curiosity leads them to question and learn.

Best of all, when a mother chooses to stay at home, she has the time and opportunity to craft the kind of relationship with her young children that only extended time together can foster. And from such a relationship she has a better chance of building a strong moral and spiritual foundation in the heart of her young child, teaching a system of truth and values without the constant challenge of authorities and peers whose lives are totally different. When these advantages are taken away from a child, how can we not count them as a loss to a whole generation of children who are hungry for direction, love, stability, and individual attention?

"Someone needs to take responsibility for their nurture, protection, nourishment, intellectual development, manners, recreation, personal needs, and spiritual development. Someone needs to commit time and energy into staying close to them as they grow, encouraging and correcting and teaching." --Sally Clarkson

I am so thankful that I have the privilege of staying home with my baby. I am so glad I'm not missing a moment with her.

I sometimes still can't believe that I am someone's mom. It's funny how as I've gotten older, I've started to view my parents in a different way. I have realized that they're regular people too haha! I guess when you're younger you don't realize that your parents deal with problems or just life in general...that they're the same people as before you existed with the same fears, desires, dreams or whatever. Since I've become a mom I've realized that maybe my mom was a person too and not just a mom. Interesting how perspectives change.

I'm in awe of the love that a mother feels for her baby. I know dad's feel it too. I know that David loves Avery with every fiber of his being, just as I do. Lately I have fleeting thoughts of sadness that there is no person in this world that loves me in a way that only a mother can. That's a downer huh? I am thankful though that I get to experience the other side of it.

I've got major baby fever...well I have ever since I had Avery. We went to the grocery store on Saturday and there were babies EVERYWHERE! I need another baby. My girl is such a big girl now.