I love introducing you to other members of the Mamavation sistahood, because all of the women are amazing. Different, but supportive and strong. Pamela is one of them, and writes at A Renaissance Woman: A Modern, Motivated, Multitasking Mom. She’s an educated woman with adorable kids (as you can clearly see in this post). Her four kids are 23, 12, 6, and 4, plus she has a 21 year old stepdaughter (but you would never know by looking at her that she has adult children!). She’s an absolute wealth of information, and I encourage you to check out her fitness posts, her reviews, and her Texas category if you’re down south.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Pamela!

When Greta asked who was interested in writing a guest post about great expectations it seemed like a perfect fit for me. There wouldn’t be a problem coming up with a topic because I’m full of topics! Many ideas came to mind and Mother’s Day was still several weeks away. There would be plenty of time to write because the day was all planned out in my head.

This year my Mother’s Day is going to be full of relaxation and blissful moments of quiet. A day for me to catch up on whatever my heart desires. Surely it will be the one day out of the year when my efforts are appreciated and my reward will be peace and quiet. My husband will make sure the kids pick up and we can have a nice dinner. That’s what I thought, until reality took over.

One by one my great expectations of a blissful Mother’s Day fell apart.

First, the week before Mother’s Day my husband’s employer notified him that he would be leaving the country for a week. I’m honestly not a fan of his travels because it’s exhausting wrangling three kids alone. At times it can be hard to keep quiet because of the temper tantrum going on inside. “What the heck? I didn’t sign up for this! We are supposed to travel the world together. Instead you leave me behind to deal with all these kids alone! This stinks!” Did I mention he would be leaving on Mother’s Day? My great expectations for “me time” were fading quickly.

Second, my siblings and I normally work out a celebration time to visit with our Mother. After several phone calls back and forth and the meet up time changing four times, it was finally decided. My family would bring the cooked spaghetti, sauce and garlic bread. My brother’s family would bring the lemon cake while my other brother would opt out for a company baseball game. He would visit on his own time. Now on Mother’s Day I’m cooking within an hour after church and bringing it to my mother’s house. Can you see that whole idea of relaxation flying out the window?

Mother’s Day is Here

After church we hit the grocery store, picked up this tulip for my mom and sped home to make the fastest spaghetti lunch known to man. We were a little late arriving but all were fed and happy. Our family had to cut our visit short because my husband still needed to pack.

Next, two very weird and unexpected things happened. My Mother gave me a New Balance shoe box to take to my car. On the way home I opened the box and inside was old photos. Some were of my father, but we don’t have a relationship. There were also photos of my eldest daughter when she was a baby. She’s going to be twenty-four this year and it made me wonder if she would call, send an email, or something. Last year she didn’t make any contact at all. My heart was pretty heavy now. Where is my bliss?

We finally made it home and out of the car where all three kids had started bickering and complaining. Where is my relaxation? Is this really going to be just like any other day? Can’t they take a break, it’s Mother’s Day? The short answer was no.

In retrospect as I’m writing it occurs to me that today was not like any other day!

My morning began with a do-nut and a card from my husband. He hid little snack sized Reese’s peanut butter cups in different places. These were found while getting ready for church and that made me smile. Each of my kids greeted me with a “Happy Mother’s Day” and a hug. In church my two younger ones sang their little hearts out while performing their special Mother’s Day songs.

In the flurry of making spaghetti sauce each of my kids brought me a gift. You know those hand crafted goodies they make at school for Mother’s Day? They were proud of themselves and these were made from the heart. My heart no longer felt heavy.

Today there were a couple of obvious lessons that I needed to learn about expectations.

First, my great expectation of bliss turned out to be in the form of handmade gifts. Those were much better than what I had conjured up in my head. Second, my great expectation of relaxation came in the reality of those photos. You see, those are relationships that are not active in my life right now. Those relationships are quiet and inactive. Meanwhile there are three very loud, energetic children that want and need a relationship with me. Now is the time for me to treasure them and appreciate the noise that is all around me.

Happy Mother’s Day to you and if you would like to see their Mother’s Day craft ideas please click on over to see what they made to lift my heart.

You can follow along with Pamela’s blog, stalk her on Twitter, like her Facebook page (seriously, go check it out if only for the ADORABLE cover photo), Instagram, and Google Plus.