So what if it’s messy – it’s supposed to be.

As I sit down to write this post I am surrounded by clutter, a messy kitchen, unorganized cabinets – my Tupperware tumbles out if opened too fast – and an oven that sets off the smoke alarm because there is still a bit of cheese that is burning at the bottom of it. Dust, there is dust everywhere and the sad part of all of that is I just cleaned on Saturday. YUP; it only takes minutes for my four, sweet, wonderful children to shuffle through and leave chaos in their wake. Moms you know how it goes; it’s the same in houses everywhere.

One day all too soon my house will be clean and organized and all too quiet and I will miss these days so terribly. I often will stop and just look at their little shoes with so much love I think my heart will burst. I leave handprints on the windows because I know their hands will never be that same size again. Sometimes I will leave out a train track for a week or two just because it is such a masterpiece of their creativity. But still, I cringe when someone walks in and I realize to them it must look like our house is falling apart; like the Tasmanian Devil lives here or even worse; I am not teaching my children to clean up after themselves.

We do our best, we try our hardest, and most important we love with all we have. At the end of the day that is what matters most of all and if your children know they are loved, they will forgive they minor setbacks of the day. Heck they may even remember your house being clean most of their childhood. So soldier on mommies and daddies, and grandmas, and grandpas, aunts and uncles, to whomever is raising those beautiful kiddies. This is the work that matters most; this is the work that changes the world – what we do with our children changes the future; makes the world a brighter, happier place.

Now this job isn’t a clean one. It involves spit-up, dirt, all sorts of insects and creatures carried in so carefully from the outdoors, and oh so much poop – I never thought poop would be such an important part of my day. It involves setting your needs aside; pushing away the workout so that you can snuggle up with another good night story, pushing away the new pair of jeans so that dance class can be added to the schedule. The house isn’t as pristine as you want it, the cabinets are not labeled and organized and you ate out at McDonald’s because dinner did NOT get made before soccer practice. (Martha Stewart moms please don’t make the rest of us feel bad here – I have met enough moms to know if one thing is in place something else probably isn’t). But motherhood is a dirty, chaotic, beautiful, inspiring, awesome, wonderfully tiring job.

So, I am saying Thank You to you – thank you for raising our next president, the scientist who finds the cure for Cancer, the doctor that helps cure Alzheimer’s, and to the next great Civil Rights Activist. Thank you for raising our soldiers, our pharmacists, or dentists, our doctors, our teachers, our preachers, and even our lawyers. Thank you for making such a difference in this world. I care so much about what you do each and every day because you do what matters most of all. Thank you for being a mom, a dad, thank you for raising a child and changing my world.