Father's Day

This year I wanted Todd to really know how special he is to all of us. This is a man who gets up every day and works hard so I can stay home and give our children have the best opportunities possible. He sacrifices a lot for all of us. How in the world do you put the thank you for that into a day?

It turns out you can’t. In the end, we make a nice breakfast and gush on Dad for about an hour and then we all turn back into ourselves. The kids want to do what they want to do, not what Dad wants to do. Laundry still piles up, fighting still happens, meals need to be made and dishes need to be done. Father’s Day is just another day with a momentary break in the chaos of living to say thanks Dad for all you do.

Mother’s Day is the same and I use to be sort of disappointed (I know Todd is sometimes too). I sort of envisioned a perfect Mother’s Day when the kids would turn into perfect angles and for an entire 12 hours I could do what I wanted. Except the truth is my kids are not perfect angels, they are themselves. It turns out I like them that way and I am not really sure why I would desire even one day a year when they turn into someone else. Life is messy at our house, but it is always interesting. Mother’s Day and Father’s Day should be much of the same. It really is what we live for.

In all actuality, my kids should be crazier on Mother’s Day and Father’s Day so that we can live out the full blessing of parenthood. I read somewhere that parenthood is not for the faint of heart. Well, I know Todd and I certainly have found strength inside us we would never have known we had if it wasn’t for our beautiful little bundles of joy. We are better people because of our kids and I guess that is really what we should celebrate each year on our "special day."

We truly have the World’s Best Dad in our house even though we celebrated that with a very imperfect and chaotic Father’s Day. And the good news is, because we can’t deliver perfection, we don’t expect it either. In the end, our best gift to you is that we love you lots and we celebrate that on Father’s Day and every day in very little ways in very brief moments. Save them over the course of the year and maybe in the end they will amount to an entire day.