I love being with people and kids but I can't go weeks without any downtime and that's what it has been lately.
I would describe myself as a social introvert. Love the moment of being with people but am exhausted by it and need downtime to recover.
So by last night, I was wiped. Top it off with the fact that I tried to get our rototiller started to make some progress out back and instead gave myself an enormous headache from pulling on that starter cord a million times.
By 7:30, I quietly left the living room so no littles would follow and went and flopped on my bed, face down. I was exhausted & my headache was throbbing. Within minutes, 2 of my 3 girls were laying by my sides. Lilly, my 6 yo, was laying on my right and very carefully & lightly stroking my hair which mumbling a little made up sing song in a quiet voice.
And then I heard the word "perfection." I asked her what she was saying and she looked at me with those amazing hazelly green/brown eyes and said in a quiet little voice, "Mommy, you are perfection."
We don't strive for perfection around here so I'm not even sure where she learned that. But there I was feeling old, broken, exhausted... everything the opposite of perfection and all while stroking my increasingly gray hair!
It truly felt like she was delivering a message from God that he knew needed at that moment.
It was a good reminder that while we mothers beat ourselves up over all the mis-steps we take in a day, through the eyes of our children, we aren't failing at all. And as long as they feel loved & cherished, we are successful mothers.
