The rewards of motherhood

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Being a mom who considers motherhood her full-time job and who takes her job very seriously, there are often times when I just have no idea whether or not, quite frankly, suck at it.
There are moments of laziness. ("Sure, watch Scooby again for the umpteenth time.")
There are moments of frustration. ("What's the matter with you?!? Why are you missing so many on your math test? We practice! You're wasting my time!")
There are moments of exhaustion. ("Please just go away.")
And the hard part about parenting is that there is really no concrete way of judging how well you are doing. There's no report card, no review sessions. There are no checklists, and there sure as heck aren't any pay raises.
So what we're left with are the little things. The random hugs, the sparse compliments.
But every now and then, something appears out of nowhere, like this recipe card Ellen concocted the other night.
She told me she was writing a secret recipe, and that I wasn't to look
"OK," I said, because I was too busy to pay attention anyway.
When it was finished, she gave this to me...


I had to get an explanation on "7 cups." It's "photos." And I had to ask her, is this what it takes to make a happy mom? Or a happy kid? Or both?
She answered, "it's all the fun stuff that you do for us."
Guess I'm not so bad at my job after all. Maybe even good enough to deserve that raise.

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