the most beautiful words about motherhood

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth,

Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,

Hang out the washing and butter the bread,

Sew on a button and make up a bed.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due

(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew

And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo

But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.

Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?

(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

For children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

Song for a Fifth Child

by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

{in case you are curious, the pictures from top to bottom are:

Bethany, Abigail, Abigail, Bethany, Abigail, Bethany}

I came across this though a post on Instagram the other night from this precious mama,

and was totally moved.

I had heard bits and pieces of this poem years ago...before I was a mother.

Now the words speak to me more than I can express.

I am not usually moved so deeply by poetry.

But I know the Lord needed me to read this.

Isn't it beautiful?

I really don't want to write much more right now, because I don't want to take away from those precious words that we all, as mothers, need to remember.

so grab a kleenex, read it again, and then go love on your babies

and worry about your to-do list a little less today.