Reflection on Easter.......among other things

It's funny how once you are "in" the media by blogging, facebook-ing, tweeting, or whatever your chosen path is - you constantly have these little thoughts going through your head as great posts, status updates or tweets. I usually don't sit down and write out half of mine - scary considering I do post fairly often to fb. Anyway, I was thinking about our preparations for Easter and Christmas a few months ago and that led to general musings on motherhood -especially motherhood to 2 girls. I am in a MOM group that meets every Wednesday that has literally been my saving grace over the past year as I adjust to having 2 children and being a stay at home mom. Our name is M.O.M and it stands for Mission of Motherhood. We are currently doing Breaking Free by Beth Moore - which is amazing by the way - it's my first BM study and it's true there is a LOT of homework - I am learning SO much - I love it. Anyway, I digress. Basically this groups's mission is to grow our children in Christ -which biblically is our ONLY mission as mothers (and fathers - but I am only a mother :). I LOVE this group and the women in it b/c it is a weekly reminder of my higher calling. Being a stay at home mom sometimes feels a lot more like being a stay at home maid/cook/laundress..etc.... than anything else. And it is so easy to get caught up in wondering if you are doing a good job with your kids based on the world's standards. Is my child crawling,rolling, walking,talking, counting,reading,going to the potty, behaving,etc..... well enough? Are my girls in enough activities with other kids? too many activities? are they being "socialized" enough? too much? Oh the list can go on and on - you can drive yourself crazy with it - or I can anyway (I'm a little of an over-thinker). So, one of the many reasons I love my Wednesday mornings is that I am reminded by these amazing women that my goal - my mission is to teach my children to love God, to be Christ-like, to love others like he would - that's it- that's my only mission. All of the other stuff is nice, but it is not the goal.

So, on that note - I get frustrated with myself for getting caught up in whether or not my girls have matching bows and socks and shoes for Easter morning and whether or not they will like their Easter basket junk. Should we do an egg hunt in or out? I should really only be worried about whether they know why we celebrate Easter. I think I do a pretty good job leading up to the holidays, Easter/Christmas - we talk about Jesus dying on the cross for us - being born for us but then the big days come and it's all about Santa Claus and the Easter bunny? I can honestly remember being a little confused for a while and thinking that Santa Claus and God were the same person. But, as A fellow MOM pointed out to me - when I was struggling this year about whether or not I wanted Chloe to believe in Santa - some of that is the "magic" of childhood - Santa, Easter Bunny, tooth fairy etc...I really don't want my kids looking back on their childhood and feeling like they missed out on some things that are just plain fun but I do want them to know what's really important is that Jesus died for all of us and rose again - he conquered the grave - and THAT is what Easter is all about. So while I do want to do all the fun stuff with the girls, dying Easter eggs, making cute cookies, egg hunts, I want to be sure they know that's just the icing stuff - not the real meat of our family. Maybe I'll get all this a little more figured out before next year........