I Love You 1% Less Than That

It's Mother's Day, that annual event where I have the chance to reflect on how blessed I am to have such wonderful children while at the same time berating myself for not doing a better job at being a mom. It is inevitable, I suppose, that I will do this to myself for the rest of my life. I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself, but I always will. But today, instead of taking all day to think about what I should be doing better I just want to focus on my sweet children. They are so good, and they try hard to always make good choices. They aren't perfect, but they constantly are trying to be better each day. I couldn't ask for more. This year I got an added sad element to the day. It is the last Mother's Day where I will have all the kids at home. Laney will be gone next year serving a mission, and after that we'll lose a child to missions or college about every other year. Time is flying much too quickly. I'm not ready for them to leave. 

Today I was greeted with breakfast in bed, always an interesting event because each child gets the chance to choose whatever they want to feed me. I have had some interesting meals in the past. This year Laney made sure that it was more balanced. Instead of giving everyone complete free reign over what to make, she divided the breakfast into different food groups. It actually turned out sort of healthy. And yummy.  And then I got a special surprise ...

Spencer serenaded me with a Beatles song as he played
his mandolin. He's actually quite good. (You can see Savannah
carrying in my yummy breakfast in the background).

Here is where I got to see just how much my children loved me. As I sat eating my feast Herman suggested that the children clean their rooms and the basement as a wonderful Mother's Day gift for me. I was totally into this idea. He got a lot of polite "sure Dad" comments for that one ... until it came to JoJo. Without skipping a beat he said, 

"I love you 1% less than that."

What?????  JoJo continued to explain ...

"I love you 1001. That would be 1002."

Apparently that would be the limit to JoJo's love for me. Making breakfast is okay. Drawing me a pretty picture is okay. He'll even sing me a song. But clean his room? Well, now I have asked too much of him. I have gone just a bit too far in my expectations. His love can only go so far.

It was so funny. Herman has already prepared a talk in his head for some church conference in the future about this idea of creating limits to our love. It should be interesting. You know what? I'm okay with JoJo's limit. What he doesn't know is that he's going to have to clean his room no matter what, so his explanation about his limits isn't going to fly for very long. Still, there might be chaos in my house. The dishes might be dirty. The clothes might be all over the floor. The toys might be scattered. I may never, ever have a home that is worthy to be displayed to the general public. But I wouldn't trade the children that I have for the world. It is an adventure to be part of Team Blau. I am sure that I am giving my kids lots of material to use in their memoirs. I think they could maybe name them "My Mom ... She Did Okay (Mostly)" or "Memories on a Childhood of Organized Chaos."  But hopefully my children will leave home knowing who they are, knowing that they are of infinite worth. I hope that they will use that knowledge as they go out in the world so that they never, ever settle for less. They deserve ETERNAL happiness. They deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. They deserve to have every blessing in the world. I hope that they will have the self-confidence to work for those blessings. Because, no matter what, I want for our family to be together forever. No empty chairs. 

Hopefully, the kids will have enough of a work ethic, though, so that they can clean those chairs so they won't be covered in dirt, grime and dirty clothes. Here's hoping ...