My son won\u2019t eat the center of cucumber slices. I\u2019m not complaining, I mean, he\u2019s eating a portion of cucumbers and beggars can\u2019t be choosers right? Actually, cucumbers top the very short list of healthy things that he will eat so I\u2019m thrilled with the little that I can get. Nevertheless, every day for lunch, I peel off the crunchy green skin of a cucumber and chop it up for him. I set the plate down on the table and then he proceeds to bite around the perimeter of each slice leaving \u201cthe middles\u201d as he calls them, untouched.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he\u2019ll stack his \u201cmiddles\u201d up in a tower, other times he\u2019ll throw them onto his little sister\u2019s high chair tray, but he never eats them. He says it\u2019s because they taste funny. There\u2019s seeds in there or they\u2019re too mushy and who am I to argue with the definitive judgment of a 4-year-old?<\/p>\n
Those middles get a bad rap around here. Sure they aren\u2019t as crunchy and unencumbered as the outside of the slice. Sure those little seeds look kind of funny, like tiny intruders in the soft, bright, plane of green. It\u2019s easy for a preschooler to cast them aside as a useless part of his snack but this mama knows better.<\/p>\n
Motherhood is kind of the same. We dance our way around the big moments \u2013 pregnancy, adoption, birth, first birthdays, first days of school, first cars, graduations and so on. Those are the moments we picture, the touchstones, the watershed, and we eat them up like bites around the crunchy outsides. We jump from one to the next and find joy and affirmation but between each and every one, we\u2019re left with the middles \u2013 the moments, hours, days, and years where everything piles on in a mushy mess. Where each day feels identical to the last like tiny, indistinguishable seeds. Where joy and contentment are harder to find and where we can lose ourselves and our intentions.<\/p>\n
The middles are the moments that go unnoticed, the years that you feel unseen. They are easy to overlook. They aren\u2019t the things you write in a baby book or memorialize with photos. They aren\u2019t the obvious sources of our pride or affirmation. On the contrary, it\u2019s in the middle days, the ones between the pages of the baby books and photo albums, that we feel like we\u2019re drowning. But mama, those days are yours too. We can find purpose and joy for ourselves and our kids in each and every one.<\/p>\n
These years that we spend tucked away mothering are hidden deep in the center of the loud, juicy, crunchy-green moments. They are wrapped up tight in our hearts and our children\u2019s but they remain the source of it all.<\/p>\n
This day, in all of it\u2019s monotony and mundane, matters. Maybe it feels identical to yesterday and you know that tomorrow will feel like d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu, but just like a sunset never ceases to captivate and stop a day in it\u2019s tracks, this day in it\u2019s simplicity is beautiful and powerful and shapes little hearts with every repetition.<\/p>\n
Live the ordinary with wonder in your eyes. Take it all in and know that you are planting seeds that will grow into something large and perfect and delicious in the lives of you and your family.<\/p>\n
Know that it matters. Everything you do matters, <\/em>because when life hits hard or the good things happen and the contents of your kid\u2019s hearts are laid bare, they will be full of all of the seeds that poured out of your middle days. They will be soft and fertile and will bear good fruit. All because you gave of your heart, yourself, your middles and shaped theirs.<\/p>\n The middles are where the seeds are. The hidden days hold the power to birth life and hope and generations. Be encouraged and inspired in the days that we call useless, but are actually the most useful. The seed bearers. The soft parts. Find ways to devour each and every day whole – middles and all –\u00a0 and find nourishment and inspiration for your soul as you do.<\/p>\n Kelsey is a wife and stay at home mom in her home state of Colorado. She is passionate about people, especially little ones in footy pajamas and the women that are raising them. You\u00a0can find her blogging about her faith and raising little ones every Wednesday at glowliveaslight.com<\/a> and on her personal blog, whilewemother.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My son won\u2019t eat the center of cucumber slices. I\u2019m not complaining, I mean, he\u2019s eating a portion of cucumbers and beggars can\u2019t be choosers right? Actually, cucumbers top the very short list of healthy things that he will eat so I\u2019m thrilled with the little that I can get. Nevertheless, every day for lunch, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":2892,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_seopress_news_disabled":"","_seopress_video_disabled":"","_seopress_video":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas_manual":[],"_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable_all":"","_seopress_pro_rich_snippets_disable":[],"_seopress_pro_schemas":[],"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[321,347,381,56],"class_list":["post-2891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wellness","tag-being-present","tag-embrace-rest","tag-hope","tag-motherhood"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themom.co\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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