These Pilgrim Days: February 2014

I posted these pictures and crafted this blog post in my mind about 4 months ago. And then life happened. Lots of life. So now here it is, super late but not forgotten! (I'll try to remember my original train of thought but it might get a little random and we'll go with it, k? Thx).

My friend, Sara, gave me this mug for my birthday. I love it. Partly because it holds a lot of coffee and it is totally pink and obnoxious--in a good way. It's really huge, people, like I love a lot of coffee and it still looks like it is just floating down at the bottom of this gigantic cup.

At lunch when she gave it to me, I interpreted its message as one of bossy superiority and expected compliance. It made me kind of proud. It reminded me of a speaker I heard at MOPS convention a million years ago that made us repeat, "I'm the mom. I'm the boss!" with authority.

Later in the conversation, we started talking about the things we do for our kids and I realized my mug had a double meaning. It could also mean things like this:

And then I was complaining about this:

and I was all "Why does it always end up being ME on the floor scrubbing stinky orange pee residue when I have no problems with my aim???" to which another friend, with perfect timing, answered, "Because you're the mom, that's why." Touche. Well-played, Jill :)

So, I bring you the "Because I'm the Mom" slideshow.

I get to buy cute clearance swimsuits and vicariously enjoy someone else wearing them. This is the ONLY swimsuit shopping I like.

I give in to my son's begging and let him get (what he dubbed as) "The Awkward Cup" out of the FREE pile at a garage sale.

Because I'm the mom, I love this picture.

And this one.

(And I have to laugh that Annie was blessed with such a strong sense of smell + 2 older brothers. Oh girl, I don't even know what's coming for both of us in a few years with those two!)

I shamelessly dress my kids up for free donuts. And I consider selling their 6 boxes of free donuts for a profit, because I am the mom and I reserve the right to do that if I want.

Because I'm the mom, I am in charge of remembering all of the birthdays...which means a lot of creative last-minute oops-what-could-we-do-really-fast-so-it-doesn't-look-like-we-forgot multi-media presentations.

Because I'm the mom, I bear the burden of knowing the heartache that will inevitably come with a balloon animal (especially a raccoon balloon animal) and say yes anyway.

Because I'm the mom, I get to make the whole family endure the rather boring Placentia parade in the hopes that it will be better than the last 3 times.

And I make them stand up and cheer for my alma mater, even though all they want to do is go to the festival at the park like all the other people that are streaming past us.

Ooo, this one is good: Because I'm the mom, I make my husband pay to endure ALL-HALFTIME/NO-FOOTBALL (in other words, we attended a band field show tournament with my old bando friends).

(Jeremy is not impressed)

Because I'm the mom, I choose Legoland for my birthday present. I know.

Because I'm the mom, I am as excited as they are to see their favorite characters made out of Legos...

(I am not even an avid Lego-builder or Star Wars fan and I got strangely choked up when we came around the corner and saw the enormous X-Wing fighter made out of like 8 million Legos. Being a mom is so weird.)

Because I'm the mom, I will never tire of taking pictures of little kids in big glasses.

Because I'm the mom, I will watch the kids drive by themselves! on Legoland streets and feel the weight of the moment in light of the fact that in the blink of an eye, they will be driving real cars on real streets and I will be happy for them even though they will drive far out of my grasp.