Messy Motherhood (through the eyes of another)

This past week, my best friend Kathryn (who is a fellow military spouse, special needs mom, and blogger) came to visit me for five wonderful days. We have been online friends for eight years, but had never met in person until this week. Our motherhood journeys have had so many similarities over those eight years, and we have grown incredibly close.

When she arrived, I asked her to do something special for me. I actually got the idea from Kathryn. She hired a photographer to shadow her for an entire day to get pictures of what her special needs mom life is really like. The results were beautiful, and helped me to understand Kathryn’s life better in all of its complexities. I asked Kathryn to do the same for me throughout the course of her stay.

What resulted is something that I will treasure forever. I think we moms know that life for us is full of hard work. The everyday, the mundane. It’s a million little things that add up to the BIG thing of motherhood. It’s easy to downplay all of these little things as…well…little things. But they all matter.

What you are about to see here is nothing special, and yet everything special. It is motherhood in all its non-glamorous everyday love.

With this week leading up to Mother’s Day, I felt like it gave me a fresh perspective and appreciation for the important role of mom and what a big job motherhood really is.

I hope that these pictures will touch your heart the same way. I hope that you will see yourself in every shot–see how what you do matters.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Love,

Aprille

P.S. Make sure to watch the video at the end! 

Little Brother got poop all over the floor, and I accidentally stepped in some!

10 AM bath for the poopy boy! 

Folding laundry while watching TV:

Lunch time for Little Brother and Mommy:

Carrying everything inside after school pickup. Ezra helped by carrying the paper airplane. Sounds fair to me!

Feeding Little Brother some eggs for breakfast:

Haircut time for the boys. Little Brother did great:

Ezra throwing a fit because he didn’t want a haircut:

Finally got him in the chair:

That was short-lived. Mid-haircut meltdown!

Cleaning up after haircuts. Ezra still visibly upset…

Cuddle time with Ezra before bed while we listen to a Bible story together:

Dropping off Little Brother at the Y for Parent’s Morning Out:

Another shot when we were headed out for the Y a different morning: