Planet Mom

This year's MOPS theme is "Together on Planet Mom". This morning I was spending some time praying for all the ladies at my table when I started thinking about what the theme really means to me.
The thought of when I was younger and I was the little martian on my mom's planet sprung into my head. My mom was a christian school principal and as a staff of the school they met together every morning for a time of worship, devotion and prayer. Being the kids of the principal we were required to get to the school at the crack of dawn... okay maybe not that bad but it was early. To make matters worse we lived twenty minutes with no traffic away from the school. However where in San Diego is there no traffic? So basically we lived an hour sometimes more away from the school. Are you getting the point? We as kids had to wake up early and get everything together to get in the van and get to the school in time for the staff devotion time.
Those morning drives were often spent catching up on homework that, oops we forgot to do at night, or sleeping, or as three sisters often did... bicker!
My mom's little blue Toyota Previa van strolled down highway 15 every morning with some sort of noise. If my mom had it her way it would have been in silent meditation as she prepared for what devotion she was going to share with her staff. As kids we had other plans! One morning sticks out in my head so vividly as if it were yesterday. Being that I am the oldest I always got shot gun and my two younger sisters had to sit in the back. My sisters were bickering, somethings never change! Being the little mom that I was because I was seven years older I joined in the noise and began yelling at them to shut-up. My mom, I believe had hit her limit and very loudly shouted, "Shut-up and praise the Lord!" Then proceeded to blast the worship tape that was playing. A few seconds later all four of us just starting busting out laughing. Mom grew a little pink in the cheeks and then I guess came to her senses and turned the worship music down.
I will admit to this day we still harass my mom about what she said. Now being a mom I find myself on the verge of saying, "Just shut-up and praise the Lord." So often as moms I think we have this perception of what life should be... our husbands are space men that drop by our planet occasionally, they take a few steps and then vanish. Our children are martians that we try to wrangle and have behave like humans when others look on. That leaves us - moms, trying to hold everything together for fear of a cosmic disaster.
My mom's van was her little planet every morning and evening. She drove it from place to place with her own three martians and often added some other mom's martians to it as well. All in all - my mom's little planet spun on a decent axis but with three martians it got askew but she always seemed to right it... maybe not with the words of a Proverbs woman, but with words of a frazzled mom living on planet Earth trying to control her very own planet.
Life is crazy but every day is a blessing!