WHOA I have been MIA lately. I'm sorry dearest friends. Give me about a month and I'll be a lot less busy.

So Mother's Day happened while I was so distant and bad at blogging.

It was great:)

My angel mom is the best person that I know and I feel very lucky to be her daughter.

In Church on Sunday we talked about a concept I want to share with you.

Our teacher shared a story about a woman who felt guilty for not making heart cookies on Valentine's Day and not hand crafting all the kids Valentines, for not throwing a party and having a pink and red dinner. Later that night, she and her kids had a dance party. It was then she realized that she wasn't crafty mom or chef mom...she was crazy dance party mom. And that was what her kids needed.

This idea struck me. Your kids need YOU as their mom. They don't need anybody else or the things that anybody else does. They need your best effort and that is IT.

Kids want their moms to be happy. We appreciate your sacrifices more than we can possibly explain, but we also want you to have fun sometimes. We want to help you put yourself first sometimes. So let us, and help us know what you need from us. We hate feeling like a burden on you...we hate thinking that you can't do or be something because you have to be our mom. Live your life and let us be a part of it. Let us help you just like you've helped us for our whole lives.

I love you mom! I'm the luckiest daughter alive because I got intelligent-funny-beautiful-creative-witty-sarcastic-selfless-tender-spiritual-andamillionotherthings mom.

Lastly...a small rant from me. All around me I see people who are pretending. Pretending to be something they aren't. The best decision I ever made was to stop caring what other people think. To love being alone with myself...and to let more of my real self show. To be authentic. To go with my first instinct. To be Maddy...no apologies, no shame, no regret. I make mistakes, it's true. And some people still don't like me. But I am so happy that I like myself. People aren't always going to like you...no matter what you act like or who you try to be. So why not be yourself, and like that person?

Basically what I'm trying to say, is that it's easy to be self-absorbed...to only care about ourselves and the image we give off. I'm trying to be less selfish...and being myself has helped me do that. I don't have to worry about acting like this or that...I am just me. And that gives me a lot of time  to focus on other people. It might be worth trying for you too.

Because this was an extra long wordy and ranting post...I'd like to give you all a little treat to end it:)