Goals and Treasures

I took some time this morning to ponder a few goals that are important to me as a mom.  Not homeschooling goals, not home care goals, but just good mommy goals.  Here are a few things I thought of:

• Really listen to my kids, even the little things, 'the mommy look at this' things, the 'mommy I have a secret' things, the 'mommy guess what show is on tv now' things, the 'mommy look at this thing I wrote, or 'hear this thought I had' things.
• Get back to our family ritual of having big Sunday breakfasts.  It was a fun thing that the kids really liked.  Yesterday I made home-made waffles. It was fun and the kids were thrilled. For that matter get back to making more big family breakfasts again.
• Read to them.  My kids LOVE LOVE LOVE books, they ponder over them, they read them, they play with them and they love to be read to.  I need to foster that.
  
  
• Take time to give them lots of cuddles and hugs and snuggles. I love to sit in my chair with a kids show on and all my kids trying to find a way to snuggle with me to watch their show.
  
  

I also thought of just a few of the things I LOVE as a mom.  Things that give me warm fuzzies at that thought of them and things that I cherish and want to remember forever when my kids are grown with kids of their own (boo hoo, I don't want to think of that day!):

• Hearing "I love you".  Is there anything sweeter in the world than the sound of a child saying those three little words?
• Having them run up to me excited to tell me some little thing.  Choruses of Mom! Mom!  Mom! filling the air as they want a little bit of my attention.  The fact that they are so anxious to share their little thoughts and games with me warms my heart.
• Kids art on my walls or on my fridge. I LOVE to see their works of art, how hard they worked and how proud they are that I put them up for the world to see. (as longs as they are works of art I pinned to the wall, NOT works of art they drew on the wall. LOL)
• Dancing silly in the living room to some song that came on.  I love the delight that they take in little moments of silly, silly dancing, silly faces, silly voices, silly tickles, and silly dancing just random bits of silly.
• When I cook something that really hits their fancy and they keep telling me over and over again how yummy and delicious it is.  How they eat so much of it that Daddy has to hurry to get any at all.
• Watching my little ones love on each other.  I LOVE watching them take each other by the hand to walk somewhere.  I love watching them play together and I love hearing them sooth each other using words they have heard me say.
  
  
• Early morning or late night cuddles with my baby are the sweetest.  Those moments of just me and my baby alone in the world, loving on each other and spending uninterrupted time together is sweet and more than worth the lost sleep.
  
• The feeling of little arms wrapped around my neck for a hug.  Little ones standing on their toes to reach up and give me the soft squish of their arms squeezing as tight as little arms can.