"Love Handles, Back Fat and Bellies" or "other disadvantages to not being able to nurse"

I am really out of shape. Seriously. I can FEEL the love handles peeking up over the top of my jeans. My biggest jeans. I think I caught a glimpse of back fat in the mirror as I was getting dressed (yes, I turn my back to the giant mirror on the bathroom wall to get dressed after a shower). When I lie down on my side, my stomach lies obediently beside me on the bed. My daughter peeked in on me in the bath tonight and said, "Wow, Mom, I think you are getting too big for that tub!" And, while I would like to think that she was referring to the fact that my legs were halfway up the wall (because we do have a tiny tub) it could just as easily have been other body parts she was talking about. Before getting up from sitting on the couch today, I reached to lift the child that was sitting on my lap ... but there wasn't a child there -- just my belly. While I am rejoicing in my baby's double chin and chunky thighs, I just don't feel the same about mine. Something has got to be done. I cannot exist in fat-hider clothes forever. Someday it is bound to warm up.

Mother's Day

I dream of pictures I will paint,

Of poetry I will pen.

Great works of wisdom, love and light

To inspire my fellowmen.

But first I have some works to do,

All dear ones to be sure.

A home to make for those I love

and many, many more.

Then, sorrowing, one day I find

My time is almost gone.

Those homey tasks have filled my hours

And left many things undone.

But as I look in each dear face

I see I've had a role

In painting pictures and writing poems

On some of God's choice souls.

I didn't write this myself but it speaks to my heart and describes exactly how I feel about my role as a mother. I am so very awed by the confidence God has in me to send to my home five of his wonderful children to call my own in this life and throughout eternity. Nothing I can accomplish in this life is as important or as lasting as what I do with them. And nothing makes me happier or more fulfilled than being their mother.

I rejoice that I am a woman and I am humbled and so very blessed to be a mother.