19/52 {Happy Mother's Day}

Happy Mother’s Day to all the beautiful mothers out there.

Each year on Mother’s Day, I ask Ben to take a photo of me with my boys. It’s very difficult to get everyone looking in the same direction and smiling, but we just say that they are ‘moment-in-time’ shots, and we love them for the moment that they represent, us in all our imperfection, even if they aren’t cover-page worthy. At least everyone’s looking in the same direction this year 😉

It seems amazing that it’s been a year since I wrote this post about the Spirit of Motherhood. One year ago, little did I know just how much I would become a warrior mother, about how much grace and strength I would need to draw upon in the months ahead. Motherhood can be hard and I haven’t felt particularly graceful lately, but I am still incredibly thankful for the three beautiful boys who have turned me into a mother. Despite any of the hard bits, I wouldn’t give up that gift of motherhood for an instant.

So, on this Mother’s Day, again I send grace to every mother, each of you in your unique, but equally beautiful, form. Here’s a little prayer I rediscovered recently, which reappeared just as I needed it.

Oh God, give me grace for this day.

Not for a lifetime, nor for next week, nor for tomorrow, just for this day.

Direct my thoughts and bless them,

Direct my work and bless it.

Direct the things I say and give them blessing too.

Direct and bless everything that I think and speak and do.

So that for this day, just this one day,

I have the gift of grace that comes from your presence.

Amen.

With love and grace to you this Mother’s Day x

nicholas: You were happily reading (oh, how you love your books) underneath the dappled light in our backyard when you heard the wind noisily rustling the leaves of the tree overhead. It was apparently quite fascinating. 

sam: Over the past few weeks, you have discovered that you can read some words and the joy in your eyes as you successfully sound out words is beautiful to watch. You love doing your reading and writing ‘homework’, and you were a great help this week reading Nicholas his bedtime stories while Daddy was away.

charlie: You and I have enjoyed some quality home time together this week. You’re a little bit crazy, but quite a lot of fun, especially when you don’t have to compete with anyone for attention. After we wrote and illustrated some books together, you carried them around for days – your prized possessions. You have obviously been observing your big brother closely, as you were very interested in sounding out all the letters as we wrote our book.

Joining in the 52 Project at Practising Simplicity ~ a portrait of each of my boys every week in 2014.