This week and Mother's Day

Mother's day is just about over and my kids are currently getting themselves ready for bed.  It's a much easier time of day than it was a few years ago.  I can tell them to get themselves ready  and they do.  That's it.  I don't have to do anything else but read a little, snuggle a little, reflect on the day and hear their night time prayers.  It's really pretty sweet.  I keep it simple and flexible.  Some nights there isn't time for reading.  Some nights our snuggles only last a minute or two.   I have found flexibility one of my best friends as a mom and I'm so lucky that my kids accept it as part of their journey too!

This week I saw a "Mother's Creed" that really resonated with my soul because we moms can get a little ridiculous in our expectations of ourselves.  Well, I know I can anyway. I find myself fighting perfectionism or getting starstruck by the mom who bakes each day or an awesome friend who loves to do crafts with her kids and the I start to compare myself and let's be honest, when we compare ourselves with others, we almost never measure up because we compare our worn out, frustrated and exhausted selves with their enthusiastic best.  The only solution is that we just stop comparing ourselves to others, do our best and give ourselves grace on those days we just don't have as much to give.

Anyway, Lisa-Jo Baker does a great job with her "MOther's Creed" and you can read it here:

http://lisajobaker.com/2012/06/encouragement-for-tired-moms/

Now, on to our weekly business... The following is the list of items we need to pack bags this week:

27 cereal bars
21 cans of soup
14 cans corn
24 raisins
2 pudding cups

Thank you to everyone who contributes each week!  Bear Necessities is a community ministry and each week when we have exactly what we need, I am reminded of Matthew 6:24-27 and just how valuable these families are to Jesus in Heaven.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"