Apprentice Motherhood

This week I have found myself reflecting on and appreciating the Apprentice Motherhood that is my every day life.

I have one amazing husband and two adorable, energetic animals, and my daily life is an apprentice motherhood.  My husband and I do not have children yet, but we LOVE our animals, and they are our dependents at present.

Lexie

and Lloyd

I have begun to treasure my role as "Mama" in the household, even if it is only to my animals (and new wife to my hubby).  I really take pride in our clean sheets, clean towels, clean clothes, clean and happy animals, clean dishes, my (clean :-D) hubby leaves the house every morning with a healthy, packed lunch, and remembering to pick up our dry cleaning (who knew the hard part was not remembering to drop off dry cleaning, but remembering to pick it up?)

I love that no one knows my husband and animals as well as I do.  Yesterday evening, for example, Lloyd and I kept hearing some sort of knocking.  At first I thought Lexie might be trying to get out of the doggie door.  No, that wasn't it.  Then, I thought another animal might be trying to come in the doggie door.  No, that wasn't it.  Lloyd kept barking and running around trying to find the knocking noise... but what was knocking?

I started looking for Lexie.  That is how I handle abnormal things and sounds in our house -- I locate both animals, determine whether or not they are causing the abnormality, and then deal with other factors if the animals as not responsible.

First I checked Lexie's usual places.  She wasn't in our bathroom cabinets (a place that definitely would have been responsible for the knocking noise), our sun room, our closet, our dining room table, on top of our kitchen cabinets, or in our basement storage room.  I pride myself in knowing Lexie's usual places.  My family had a cat when I was growing up, and we NEVER knew where she was!  We could guess, but really, we rarely had any idea where to find her.  I LOVE that I am really good at finding Lexie.

When she wasn't in her usual spots, I began to get a little concerned.  I went into the back side of our basement (the unfinished side) and called her name.  "Meow," I heard.  Yay, I had found her!  But where was she?  I started scanning the walls looking for spaces where she could craw under the house or behind a wall or under our stairs.  I didn't see anything, but where was this Meowing coming from?  It sounded like I was right next to her... but I couldn't see her anywhere.

Then, I opened a tall Wardrobe Box that Chris and I used to move the contents of each of our closets.  There, two feet down inside an empty cardboard box was my sweet little girl.  She must have jumped onto the box, and the lids collapsed and she fell into the big empty box.  I love that it took me about 3 minutes to find her, once I started looking for her.  The knocking sound was her trying to jump out/knock over the tall box she was trapped inside.

I have found that my most blessed, contented moments of the day are when I know where all my people are and what they are doing... when my hubby is safe and sound asleep next to me, Lloyd is safe and sound asleep at the foot of our bed, and Lexie is safe and sound asleep in our closet, or on my shoulder, or on our dresser.  When everyone is accounted for, I feel such a peace and joy that I've never known.

Something tells me it's a small preview of the peace and joy that will be mine when I'm actually "The Mom" of actual children instead of animals.

For now, I'm very happy with the apprentice motherhood and the peace and joy that comes with it.

Have a beautiful and blessed Friday.