Imperfect

When I became a mom, actually, the very first second I held my firstborn, I realized that I had a lot to learn and God would provide me with untold numbers of lessons during motherhood. Five and a half years in and almost three kiddos later, I am realizing that this is going to be a lifelong lesson-learning session.

In some moments more than others, the lesson is much more in my face and straightforward. Christmas time is one of those times for me. Before I had kids, our Christmas tree was perfectly decorated with beautiful, fragile ornaments and the presents piled up underneath weeks before Christmas morning. Now, even on my so-called "nice" tree, the two year old has taken down and replaced all the ornaments and garland within arms length. So, my tree is now sporting clusters of ornaments at about 3 feet high. Also, even if we didnt do the whole Santa bit, we would still have no presents under the tree until Christmas morning because little hands find it hard to leave bows, paper, etc untouched on pretty packages. All this would drive me crazy in my old pre-kid life. I've come along way, baby! Now, I shake my head, sometimes say a silent prayer for sanity, and pick up the trash or put back the Christmas decor.

This morning, we made cookies too. They are terrible looking, but as evidence of how far I've come, I actually like them more than any "perfect" cookies that I could have made alone. They are all globby, misshapen forms even though we used cookie cutters because the dough got too warm and the cookies cut too thick. But, I know that my kids made these, had fun, and, hopefully, will remember christmases when they were little as fun times. I am thankful that God keeps reminding me that there will cone a day, sooner than I know, that there will no longer be little helping hands in my kitchen to help make "imperfect" cookies and I will long for just one more time.