bare feet, beautiful sky

("i runnin' wis minnie!!!")

you know, there are a whole bunch of pretty great perks when it comes to this mom deal i'm working with these days... liiike barefoot walks. tiny conversations! sweet friends to visit. the opportunity to head out and see my horse every day, if i can work it, and never missing a beautiful sunset. not to mention all the snuggles on the planet. mandatory snuggles! life dream accomplished!
of course, there are many days when steven gets home from work, and i think... well, shoot, he looks awfully nice!! all handsome and spiffy, and here i am with my chipping nails, not a spot of makeup, eyeballing that ever-growing laundry pile, and stirring a pot of something or other. hahaha. i do try to pull it together more than that on most days, but sometimes... oh, you know! sometimes. sometimes my faux-free-spirit wins out over my exhausted a-type, and well, there i stand with my hair piled up in its end-of-the-day bird's nest, wishing i'd at least have thrown on my face for the day!
and then, since i guess i'm some impossible combination of merrily content but also really restless, i'll every now and again go into a little daydream about being someone in some super glammy glam business, saying things like "will you please pull the anderson file for me, hannah? i've got to be downtown in 10!" before heading off to a nice lunch meeting in my fancy skirt, and then later that evening collapsing on a sofa that doesn't require a slipcover with my nude or black heels dropping to the floor in this really stylish sort of manner, because obviously, that's what my inner business woman does! but then i laugh, because, hahahahaaaaa, business chick brittany wouldn't last a week. i'm not very punctual, for starters... no, i still think i'm much more suited to being constantly on-call for a pretty little lady, age of two. and fortunately, she can't fire me for being late or sassy. ;)
either way, though, i think it's important to remember where the beauty in life really is, no matter what your role. it's in a family that works hard for each other and appreciates each other's gifts. it's in nature, in the sky and the trees and the flowers, all working the way they were created to work, never questioning their design or comparing purposes. it's in the hugs and kisses that you end the day with, and a tiny voice giving thanks in her bed time prayers all on her own. it's in the smallest blessings as well as the big. it's in discovering the talents God has given you and using them to the best of your ability to bring honor and glory not to yourself, but to Him.
i'm sure it's been for centuries now that mothers have felt the pressure to be more, do more, and do it all better, but i think the pressure is really on in this day and time. we're constantly exposed to what other people seem to be doing, wearing, buying, being, and it can be really challenging to not compare lives... but hey, when it comes down to it, you really don't need a whole heck of a lot to take a walk hand in hand under a beautiful sky, now do you?! and anyway, i think that's where i'm happiest. :)