What I Sacrifice

Logan to Wyatt: "Will you hand me that, mom?"

Wyatt: "I'm not mom! I'm Wyatt!"

Logan: "Oops. I know...  Do you know what a mom is?"

Wyatt: "No."

Logan: "A mom is someone you love."

*

As I am in the last two days before our big departure for the Yukon, I am frantic.  Thinking, planning, organizing, packing, shipping. I know, I know... It's all I talk about lately.  But unless you have done it-- traveled somewhere to stay with your family of five for three months-- you just can't imagine all the effort and planning that goes into it.

Everywhere in my house is piles.  A pile of things to give my mom, sister and mother-in-law.  A pile of things to pack in our carry-ons, in our luggage and into our storage unit.  There are piles of clothes (some clean, some dirty) for us to wash or wear in the next few days.  There are bags, cans of food and toys strewn about the house.

I basically don't stop moving from now until we leave.

And all this work had me thinking this morning about why we do what we do.  Why do I do this to myself? Why do I live where I live nine months of the year? And why do we come back here to Washington like this?

The short answer is motherhood.  

I do this to myself so that I don't have to face the daily agony of leaving my children to go to work.  I live where I live nine months of the year so my husband can work and together he and I can provide the kind of childhood we envisioned for our children.  I come back here, to Washington, to our loved ones, so our boys can experience the best of both worlds.  They get to live the way many dream of but few ever do; and they get to live the way their dad and I did-- riding bikes down the sidewalk in our suburban summer rental; visiting Rockaway Beach where my grandparents have lived since I was their age; and swimming on hot afternoons in the Washougal River.  

I sacrifice a lot to make our lifestyle work.
But being a stay-at-home mom,
being someone they love,
makes it all worth it.

*