What's a Mother to Do?

I'm home today, for a change. The subbing has taken off and I'm working almost daily. I stayed home today because my Janna was sick.

Janna and I last Sunday after church. I'm 5' 7 1/2". It looks like I shrunk. Janna is 5' 10 1/2", but with her "America's Next Top Model" stilettos on, she's a good inch or two over 6 ft.

I want to be home with my children, but in spite of my best efforts, there have been times where subbing has taken me longer than my children's school schedules. Because of different school times there have been a few days where I have arrived 15 minutes to an hour after Janna and Sam get home.

Janna has seen me home her 16 1/2 years. The other day she came home from school wanting to tell me about her day. I wasn't home. She found herself disappointed that I wasn't there and concluded that she didn't like her mother working, but truth be told; how many times have I not been home because I was tending Grandma or at the grocery store or on another errand? What's the diff.? Some how there was one in her mind and she was distressed by the situation. I walked in minutes later to hear about her feelings. Anyway, what's a mother to do?

“I know who I am, and I know what I am supposed to do. The rest just follows.” [I]...will build faith and character in the next generation one family prayer at a time, one scripture study session, one book read aloud, one song, one family meal after another. [I am]...involved in a great work. [I know]...that “children are an heritage of the Lord” and “happy is the [woman] that hath [a] quiver full of them” (Ps. 127:3, 5). [I know]...that the influence of righteous, conscientious, persistent, daily mothering is far more lasting, far more powerful, far more influential than any earthly position or institution invented by man. [I have]... the vision that, if worthy, [I have the]...potential to be blessed as Rebekah of old to be “the mother of thousands of millions” Gen. 24:60).

Julie B. Beck, “A ‘Mother Heart’,” Ensign, May 2004, 75