Whether we choose to stay home or balance a family and a career, each mother is a mighty powerhouse, and don’t ever let anybody tell you otherwise. If you consider the planning, the dedication, and the sheer number of work hours involved, motherhood is at once comparable to building a house (a brick one, no less), planting a forest, and growing a garden. Visioning, tireless cultivation, and sowing the seeds of future generations – we do it all.
Like Tom Spaulding in Dandelion Wine, I often mentally count the number of “bricks” – big and small – that I have laid into the edifice of progeny in the past seven years.
Here are the results of my rough calculations:
- 672 loaves of bread
- 990 chocolate chip cookies
- 260 crayons purchased
- 22 batches of homemade ice-cream (I made my first batch about two months ago)
- 1,260 servings of homemade baby food (always as simple as mashed bananas, potatoes, avocados, roasted yams, apple sauce, plain yogurt, or some of what the rest of us were eating)
- 10, 950 diaper changes
- 9, 125 eggs collected
- 180 lunches packed
- 33 lego pieces purchased and lost (I swore off Legos since)
- 35 holes in clothing fixed
- 55 blowout stains removed
- 20 bottles of Febreze, extra strength
- 30 bottles of Oxy-Clean spray
- 2 birthday cakes baked and iced (I know)
- 1 US citizenship earned
- 1 rural lifestyle embraced
- one whitetail deer life taken (as lean venison makes wonderful kid treats, like this and this)
- 3 human lives given
My husband used to say that work is love made visible, and I have to agree.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Good post. I also count the number of days I shared my own being with them (pregnancy) – 1448 days. It certainly taught me to share, and has been so incredibly worth it.
mamadragon recently posted..Bread
I love to be pregnant though, especially as I get close, and to breastfeed, which I do to at least 2.5, so those are really a gift to me.
Did you know, they continue to feed on your life energies, especially when they are little, until at least 21, which is why moms get extra tired, which can only be repenished with sleep by the way. Which is why taking semi-frequent breaks feels so refreshing and necessary. So really you are sharing your being with them much longer, I can really feel it.
It’s really amazing to look at what can be accomplished as parents when you lay it all out like that… and that’s only the beginning your kids are still young! Being a parent is truly a remarkable gift and great obligation, it is worth the time and effort to provide the world with well balanced well rounded people. I read your your posts frequently and just today put a link to your blog from mine as a homesteading reference to my followers, if you would like to see it check out my blog. Thanks for your inspiring posts!
Anna recently posted..Farmhouse Friday: Butchering Day…yikes!!