A great Mama?!

I am fighting a battle, a battle that I feel I have lost too many times during the short time I have been a mother.

Tha Battle?
What makes a great Mama?

Is it the smell of something yummy baking as you enter their home? Is it a clean home or chores that are always complete? Is it a manicured yard or even just the yard trimmed? An upkept mother and ironed clothes for every family member? Is it a homemade dinner on the table every night? Each child participating in everyextracirricuuler activity? A solid routine for which the children follow strictly day in and day out?

Is it the sound of happy children at any hour of the day? Is it a little bit of chaos while an art or craft is being so happily completed by little hands even though the dishes need to be done? Is it playing in the floor with your little ones even though laundry is undone. Is it playing Candy Land one more time instead of vacuuming? Is it cuddling as you read a book for the millionth time instead of mopping?

I feel it is letting the laundry sit while I play with my little ones. Not worrying about the dishes in the sink while I cuddle on the cough with my babies. Forgetting about the mess while I read them a story or paint with them.

Time flies by, the laundry will be there later, the dishes can wait and the vacuuming can be done another time. My little ones will only be a little for a short amount of time. They will not be 4yrs 4 months and 2 weeks old, 2 yrs, 3 months and 1 day old, and 8 months 2 weeks and 2 days old tomorrow.
And as much as I struggle with the battle of what makes a great mama....deep down I know that my children come first. I should be proud of the 'art work' all over the house, the mess in the girls room, the stains on the rugs and the sticky spots on the kitchen floor and chaos that is my life and home.
For Today is a gift, tomorrow a mystery and yesterday a memory to be cherished forever.
Make every moment count and a memory that you can rely on to get you through the tough times.
It is so hard for me to let the dishes go, the cleaning slide and the laundry pile up. I feel I need to 'impress' others. But what I need to remember is my kids are little treasures that need me more then the house needs cleaning. That need to be held before the things are straightened up. As long as the house is livable and lived in.....nothing else should matter over my babies.
I know this....now that battle of making sure I do this.