Roxanna - Motherhood Series 2012

Roxanna has a beautiful family and a large extended family. Her house is often 'abuzz' with friends/family. Yet Roxanna herself has a spirit of calm and steadiness (I think she might laugh at this, but she gives off that energy). She is fierce... and calm, if that makes any sense!
She is very tuned into her kids and works hard to make sure they have what they need.
Roxana is also tuned in to the mind/body/spirit connection and is always reading and researching.
I love talking with her.

Roxanna you are insightful and thoughtful and lots of fun!

1. Tell us about yourself!
I am a daughter to wonderful parents, an older sister to 3 sisters and 1 brother, a mother to a 7 yr old, 5 yr old and 1 yr old, a friend and a wife.  I am a farm girl, turned city slicker, turned country girl (in that I live outside of city limits!).  I am an insufferable procrastinator, a giver of unsolicited advice and a fiercely loyal friend.  I love to cook and bake, often experimentally, but I loathe cleaning the kitchen...AGAIN!  If I could be outside all day, I would.

2. What were your expectations of motherhood before you had kids? (ie. Did you think you'd have a whole houseful of kids? Did you see yourself as a mother at all? Did you wonder if it would ever happen?
I fully expected to be married by 20 and to have 4 kids, any older than that and it would be too late!  I missed that deadline by nearly a decade and it turns out it wasn't too late!  I am a mother to 3 girls, something I totally expected.  I never saw myself as a mother of boys for some reason.  That is why I know to not keep trying for that elusive boy...it won't happen, I wouldn't know what to do!

3. What has been(was) your biggest surprise about Motherhood? (different than you expected? or wish someone had told you?)
I thought motherhood would be a whole lot simpler.  I thought I would be the one doing all the teaching around here, but what I have discovered is that we, as parents, are really the student.  I am discovering that those things that drive us the most crazy about or children, their little quirks and habits that make us pull our hair out, are the things that we need to most work on ourselves.  The saying that we "teach by example" has never been more true than within the scope of parenthood.  

4. Biggest joy?
I love going to get the baby up from her bed and to see her nearly jumping out of her body with excitement to see me.  Babies know how to show pure emotion and I could eat it up.  I love watching them make right choices and know it and be proud of it.  To see that maybe, just maybe, they are listening and watching.  I love the absolute forgiveness a child has.  Heaven knows we need it once in a while when those " bad mom" days happen and your child still wants to hold your hand and love you.  We need to remember that always, when our children have " bad kid" days, to still want to hold their hand and love them anyway.

5. Best wish for your children?
To have a firmly rooted STRONG sense of self worth.  To have the confidence to make and stick with good choices even when it feels the world is going the opposite way.  To do what they love and to find the happiness and satisfaction that comes with knowing who you are.  To never doubt the love of a family.

6. How do you find time for yourself/what do you do?
I stay up WAY too late most nights either working on something I want to do, reading or just enjoying the selfishness of having the couch and remote all to myself.  If I can get away, I mostly try to spend time with my friends.  Maintaining friendships is vital and I treasure the times I can beg away and enjoy a few moments laughing with a good friend.  Sometimes I just go grocery shopping...you take what you can get!

7. What do you wish you had more of? Less of?
More money, more time, more energy.  Less dishes, less laundry, less stuff.

8. What do you hope your kids learn from you?
I hope they learn that the learning never ends, that you spend a lifetime trying to grow and develop and to foster those interests into passions.  I hope they learn to question everything, to make informed decisions and to not become the status quo, no matter how easy that may seem.

9. What are some of the best things you learned from your own mother?  

   I learned how to be a mother from my mother.  She taught me that mothers of daughters have a responsibility to raise good mothers.  What a heavy job!   But when you look at it from that perspective, it becomes all the more important to try everything you can to become the person you hope your daughters will one day become.  I also learned that it is a work in progress and equally important, is that your daughters know that you don't one day wake up and become the perfect mother.  You make mistakes, you learn from those mistakes, you look to one another for support and advice and you dig deep for that faith that will pull you through.