What? I have to work hard?

You have to put in the work! Seriously, put in the work-

Ahhhh this is the normal conversation that I am constantly having with our 5 year old, 15 year old, and most days my self. lol

The struggle is real people! It is hard to put in the work – especially when you are used to things coming easily to you. For instance- Most of my life I have been a relatively small girl. I didn’t have to put in much work in my younger days to remain that “small body.” As the years have progressed and continue to progress this is something that I have to work pretty hard at. Some days I do and others I fail miserably.

When it comes to the kids the same is true- Our 15 year old has this mentality that he will just show up and be GREAT- God love him, and I think this is partially our faults as parents- we are always bragging about how great our children are (Why wouldn’t we? They are pretty Great!) The truth is that as great as our children are the child next to them is also pretty great- Then the question becomes what separates our Great child from your Great child??? I don’t know the answer- maybe interests, maybe work ethic, maybe priorities… this list goes on, the only thing that I know that I tell our 15 year old is that you have to put in the work.
This work needs to happen in every area of your life- You need to work hard at school, you need to work hard at communicating, you need to work hard at keeping up with your chores, you need to work hard at keeping up with your sports, cleanliness, having a good attitude. I mean this list also goes on. There isn’t anything in life that we can just show up for and be Great.

This is a hard hard pill to swallow- trust me I’m still trying to swallow this little pill down- I mean what the what??? You mean I can’t just wake up and the stars will align and someone will just give me everything in the world that I want? hahhaahahaha No, sorry it doesn’t work that way- The truth is that we have to work hard.

Everyday we have to make a conscious choice to get up, show up, and do life. This means doing things that we don’t want to do- this morning our 15 year old informed me that he knows that he needs to put the dishes away, but sometimes he just doesn’t want to do it because he doesn’t like too.
HMMMMMMM- That’s nice- I’m sorry son of mine that you don’t like to put away the dishes. ahahah Well, okay great well, I don’t like washing the dishes, I don’t like cleaning toilets, I don’t like washing laundry and everything that goes along with that, I don’t like scrubbing the floors ect –

Things I do like: I like living in a clean house, I like knowing that my family has food to eat, clothes to wear, essentials to be able to do life, I like knowing that my family is taken care of. I like the end result after putting in the work. I like that. I didn’t like most parts of pregnancy, but I am thankful God opened up the path of Motherhood to me and I love love love being your mom!! You see child of mine- it’s not about what we don’t like doing- It’s about what we like the result to be! Putting in the work isn’t always the fun part, but reaping those benefits is pretty great and without that hard work there won’t be many benefits to reap.

After this conversation- I reflected and realized- Everyday we all experience moments that we do not like. We all have to do things that aren’t exactly fun, we all have to put in the work, but more than that we get to experience the results-

-Pregnancy- Oh so hard! Holding your sweet baby in your arms ahhhhhhhh Are there even words?
-School and learning – holding that degree feels pretty amazing!
– Cleaning your home – sitting back after it’s all done
– Working out – Seeing those before and after pictures Wheeeeew
– Sleepless nights working on a project- watching that project come to life 🙂

There are so many examples- but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter what it is- That end result is pretty GREAT! Focus on that!
We got this! The sunshine is on it’s way!