Moments

So today I was thrown off balance by a challenge at reverb.  Ali Edwards was the author.  I was thinking she'd be easy and she's a scrapper so I'd whip through her prompt and voila amaze all of the tweeters in cyberspace.  Then I read the prompt:

Author: Ali Edwards
Memory Keeping Idea Books
@aliedwards
Prompt: Moment. Pick one moment during which you felt most alive this year. Describe it in vivid detail (texture, smells, voices, noises, colors).

What?!?  That's my thought.  I wish I had some epiphany this year, some one moment that defined my human existence and made me shout "I am here, I am here" until Horton hears me.  But the truth is, it didn't happen, or at least not of enough significance that I recall it now at the end of the year.  As a stay at home mom it is more difficult to lose yourself in your job than any other profession.  (I'm sure that's a proven statistic somewhere) You spend your life being mom, wife, PTA, taxi, whatever you sign on for, you are that hat.  No one appreciates you on a daily basis, no one says "job well done", no one tells me how great I am at this or that.  I get asked to run to walmart for a binder at 10pm or told someone is out of socks or underwear.  I have many moments where I feel like I'm not alive, where I am just going through the motions.  Doing all I do for all I love.  Or not doing because I'm just tired or sick of it...

Hold up!  Before you stop reading and assume I'm the biggest whiner you've met, understand this:  I am just as under appreciating as the rest of my family is.  I don't spend my days thanking them for all they are & do.  I don't tell my husband 'thanks for going to work to support us', I don't thank my five year old for getting to bed nicely, I don't thank my teens for being strong under peer pressure.  I surely don't thank my 3 year old when he plays quietly so I can read or concentrate on journaling a layout.  We all have our moments were we take for granted and are taken for granted.  But we have our moments where we appreciate each other.. and it's in those moments I feel alive.  When someone recognizes that I got up early and headed to the store to get a newly released video game that they wanted.  Or when a favorite friend tells me I'm doing a great job helping her with a site.  When someone gives me a nod and tells me that I'm a good mom, or doing a good job at life. That's when I feel alive.  It isn't profound, it isn't one moment but it is something for which I'm thankful.