The moments that fill a mom's life

“How do you fill your days?”

A good friend of mine asked this question during a visit this week. She didn’t mean anything insulting by it. She was honestly mystified by what a stay-at-home mom does all day.

It’s a question I’ve been asked before and one I often wondered about my own mother.

Rather than make sweeping generalizations or give answers like “I raise tomorrow’s leaders” to make my daily life sound profound and selfless, I offer a glimpse into yesterday.

7 a.m. – Wake up to my 4-year-old daughter Nicole doing a running leap that turns into a cannon ball in midair. I scream when she lands on my head. My scream wakes the baby. Dad laughs as he heads out the door and I suggest a take-your-daughters-to-work day.

Morning – Nicole wants a pancake. No, yogurt. No, a pancake. No, cereal but only the kind without raisins. We don’t have it. Nicole is devastated. She eats the pancake while a single tear slides down her cheek. Very dramatic.

My 11-month-old baby eats two pieces of banana, tossing the other 12 on the floor. I pick them up and notice other foods cemented to the kitchen floor. When did we have spaghetti? I make a cursory attempt to chisel the food off the floor and remove the inexplicable shellac of peach juice that covers our house.

Lunch – We go to a summer pool party for the Young Women from church. I explain to Nicole that I’m not getting into the pool because the last thing I need is to stand in a bathing suit next to a bunch of 16-year-old girls who have dimples only on their faces. The baby smears peach juice through her hair and I spend the next 15 minutes de-lunchifying her.

Afternoon – Time for swim lessons. Nicole swims for the first time on her own in the big-girl pool. I make a ridiculous scene of clapping and cheering and yelling her name. This is big. Stare all you want, lifeguard boy.

After swimming, I attempt to hold my baby while changing Nicole and myself. I end up naked in the middle of the locker room having flashbacks to when I was a girl wondering why older women always had to be naked in the locker room.

I am now that woman. A small part of me dies. Oh, well, moving on.

Late afternoon – We go to a friend’s house to play with her daughter while she takes care of her two newborn twin boys. I “ooh and aah” over the babies and thank my lucky stars I don’t have twins.