So I really need to win this photo shoot... remember how I said Brian won't spend money on photography?! But I figure since I have such wonderful followers and viewers... that some of you would want to help me out? PLEASE PLEASE? AWESOME! K, all you have to do is click here and like Micah Folsom's Photography page on Facebook, and then like my photo under her mothers day contest album. Or you can click here to get to the photo as well. It's the first photo... if you couldn't tell! Cute huh? My neighbor took it for me. Anyway, I will love you for ever!
I don't have a video tutorial for this one. So sorry! There will be a tutorial for how I did the curls though later on, so you're just gonna have to wait! I'm at the mercy of my videographer, aka-mom. And when she's not home and I've got to get ready for the day, I do my hair without her. When she gets home she takes some pictures... but me re-doing my hair... well yeah, about that. It's hard enough to get around to doing it in the first place! Ha ha!!
Has anyone read the Hunger Game series? I'm obsessed. Last night I had a dream that I was Katniss. It was so awesome! I cannot even wait for the movie. We have to wait an ENTIRE year! Are you kidding me? Holy crap. If you guys have not read them, I suggest you do. It will change your life. For reals. And does anyone have any suggestions for another great book?
I hope you guys had a wonderful mothers day! My cute little husband took Boston and let me sleep in! AND he made me breakfast, muffins and all. I'm so lucky to have found him. There was a cute story on our program at church yesterday, thought I would share. If you have a second, you should read it. It made me cry!
Invisible Mothers
It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store.
Inside I'm thinking, 'Can't you see I'm on the phone?'
Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all.
I'm invisible - The invisible Mom.
Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more.
"Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?"
Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, 'What time is it?'
I'm a satellite guide to answer, 'What number is the Disney Channel?'
I'm a car to order, 'Right around 5:30, please.'
I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, she's gone!
One night, a group of us were having dinner,celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well.
It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, 'I brought you this.' It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription:
'To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees.'
In the days ahead I would read - no, devour - the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work: No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.
A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built,
and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man,
'Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof?
No one will ever see it.'
And the workman replied, 'Because God sees.'
I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, 'I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does.
No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've baked, is too small for me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will
become.'
At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride.
I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.
The writer of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime
because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.
When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, 'My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table.' That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his friend, to add, 'You're gonna love it there.'
As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.
I just wanted to add how grateful I am to be a mother. Being able to stay home with Boston has truly been a blessing in my life. There are definitely those moments when I would kill to have a normal job. To be able to wear clean clothes that aren't soiled in spit up, having people recognize and appreciate me, having normal conversations with grown ups and feeling like I'm important. Not to mention the money would be awesome! Yes, there are those moments. And while I'm living in my parents basement, clipping coupons and our date night is a box of pizza and a DVD, I'm reminded that "No other success in life can compensate for failure in the home" {said by former President of the LDS church, David O McKay}. I am building a great cathedral. And that little boy, man he has given me the world. So while it would be nice to have all the things of the world, I am so grateful I don't. But one day, I will have beautiful children who will hopefully want to come home from college and bring their friends along because like in the Invisible Mother, they are going to love it there!
