Belated Happy Mother’s Day, fellow moms!

How did you celebrate this special day with your family? I hope that in one way or another, you felt appreciated and loved by your children.

I’m writing this blog post to remind myself and you, my fellow moms who are readers of my blog, that our children notice us.

They may not always verbalize their appreciation. They may not even know how to say or articulate it. They may not know how to express their thanks or love. But, surely, they notice!

I realized this last week as I read the Mother’s Day worksheets that I asked my kids to answer a few days before Mother’s Day.

It’s good to ask our kids to write their thoughts, especially on special days like Mother’s Day. We could be pleasantly surprised like what happened to me last week.

Reading my children’s answers warmed my heart and even brought happy tears to my eyes.

I was moved by what my youngest child (only 7 years old) wrote. He said, “My mom is really good at teaching me.” Wow! I loved that because I had been doing my best to homeschool him and his brothers in the past years. I had been homeschooling them since birth!

I also loved what my 10-year-old wrote. He said, “My mom is really good at cooking.” Cooking food daily is tiring and draining. There are days when I hardly have the energy to cook. But I still strive to do it daily, if I can, for my family so that we could eat nutritious and delicious food. That’s why I was happy to read that my middle child thinks that I am good at cooking.

Last, but not least, I loved that my eldest child (a teenager) thinks that I am really good at writing. I’m not sure if my being a multi-awarded author and blogger has influenced him to also write his own book. I did not tell him to be an author or a writer like me. I just let him witness how I do my work and I bring him and his brothers with me whenever I can to my events related to writing. Moreover, I’m grateful that I make him feel special. I try to do this in many ways, including having one-to-one dates with him and his brothers at least once a month. I also love that he appreciates that I play with them. It has been one of my goals since last year to play with them, if possible, daily even when I’m terribly busy.

I also love that my younger kids appreciate what I give and teach them or what I do for them, especially at night.

Last weekend, we had a simple Mother’s Day celebration. We watched a family movie that I chose on Saturday. My husband ordered lunch for us from Kenny Rogers’ Roasters on Sunday so I didn’t have to cook that day. He also bought ice cream. We played a game as a family. Then, we went to Tagaytay for the first time since Taal Volcano erupted and since the first lockdown due to the pandemic. We tried a new restaurant that serves Italian food.

Most days, I feel so exhausted doing ALL that I do for my family, particularly for my children. Homeschooling them and making sure they have healthy food to eat daily fills up my days and nights with unending to-do lists.

I do not regret pouring so much of myself into my children’s lives. Reading these words that they wrote recently makes me even more energized and motivated to keep on doing what I had been doing because they notice them and these things make a difference to each one of them.

I may not be a perfect mom to them. I make a lot of mistakes every day. I lose my patience and temper more than once a day. But I still choose to be a hands-on mom while earning to them; knowing that my efforts are not in vain. I may not see the fruits of my labors right away or completely in this lifetime. I continue to entrust my children to God, our loving Father, however. I know that by His grace, with His help, and through His guidance, I will continue to grow to be the mom that my children need me to be.