Motherhood Pays Off

Rebecca told me that for Mother's Day one of the gifts she has for me from school was "just a piece of paper." It ends up that she won the "Why I Love My Mom... Essay Contest." Attached to her essay is a certificate for a $300 gemstone for her mom (hmm.. I wonder what kind of strings will be attached when we go to get it). The best gift for me though was reading her essay. Here is what she wrote.
"I love my mom for many reasons. One reason is because she teaches me to do many things. She teaches me how to play the piano and helps when I practice playing the violin. She helps me with schoolwork. One of the most important things my mom teaches me is to be kind to others, even if they're not kind ot me and to respect adults.
Another reason is that she cares about me. Sometimes she comes down to my room at 9:00 just to read with me. When I was taking the ISAT (a very important test) I was worried abou the math part. She had me take some practice tests so I would not be as nervous.
But the most important reason is because I know that she loves me. She teaches me. She cares about me very much. I love my mom."
These are the kind of paybacks that make being a mom so worth it. I was starting to wonder if I was pushing Becca too hard this week in her music because I've been nagging her to practice her violin all week, so she's been hiding from me a bit so she won't have to hear one more reminder. But I'm glad she knows I love her. She is such a great kid, so now its my turn to brag about her a bit. She scored Advanced on all 3 categories of the ISAT and recieved the highest score in her class for both English and Reading. I love how she works so hard at her schoolwork and loves reading as much as I do. She even set her alarm for 4:30 a.m. once just to read a book. Today she was invited to go to a Writer's Conference for a couple of hours after school. Just one child from each class was invited and she is so excited to go. Her stories are so creative and expressive I Love hearing her read them. Here are some of the pictures from when we went on a "date" with Rebecca to hike up to the pillars at ISU.