A Mocktail to Celebrate The Beauty of Motherhood!
A portion of this essay is excerpted from a previous post. It was written as a collaboration to celebrate the book launch of The Beauty of Motherhood, coming out March 21. But you can pre-order the book TODAY wherever you buy your books. Pre-ordering books is the best way to celebrate an author and bring attention to the book before it is released into the world. It’s also a great way to give your future self a gift!
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The knife swipes across the bread, crackle of toasted grains like a snow shovel on the sidewalk. Salted butter melts and glistens. But that’s not the best part. It’s the jelly I’m excited about.
I dig for the jar with the label in my mom’s familiar handwriting, the one I recognize from permission slips and recipe cards, birthday notes and care packages, grocery lists and chore requests. Raspberry - August 2022. Every summer my mom collects the raspberries from their garden, preserves it as jam, and then shares the reward with me.
I dip the knife in and create swirls. This simple motion lifts smells of summer sun, itchy grass, wild bushes speckled crimson with fruit, kids rolling down the hill and running off with grandpa to collect the morning harvest. It’s a smell that invites and delights. Until it haunts and taunts.
Will we touch summer again? Will we hear it, see it, smell it, taste it? My mind tells me, of course we will, summer comes every year. But my heart weary from the weight of a long winter isn't so sure.
I look at the jar, half full, or is it half empty? I freeze. This is the last jar in the freezer. What happens when it is gone? Will the memories go empty along with the jar?
Motherhood feels like this sometimes. We slather the weight of worry and overwhelm with the sweet joys of our children. Just when it becomes too much, their light, like a warm summer’s day, fills us up with grace. But as each milestone ticks by, we wonder, is it enough?
I’ve been reading through the devotion written by my friends Kim Knowles and Erin Strybis The Beauty of Motherhood. Through bitesize words of encouragement, moments to practice, prayers to hold close, each of their devotions walk through a mother’s journey from expecting to growing up. They, too, wrestle with questions about staying present as a mother, about savoring the fleeting moments.
“If there’s no picture,” Kim asks in the chapter “God Remembers,” “will I remember?”
In Erin’s chapter “Enjoying the Crumbs” she recognizes “I don’t think God is asking us to savor every moment, but I do think there’s wisdom …in attending to the ‘crumbs’ that define our kids in this season, and seeing their sacredness.”
Chapter after chapter, each of the writers give reflection on the challenges we all face as mothers, and then point us back to the grace of God that is always present, always close. As they say in their blessing at both the beginning and closing of the book:
Let these words remind you
as you grapple in faith
you’re never alone,
you’re drenched in God’s grace.
I’m so grateful to have their stories and their blessings in this beautiful devotional book. Like the jar of my mom’s jam, I want to savor every word, read them slowly, and I can. There is a chapter for any season of motherhood that should come along. I also recognize these are words I can come back to again and again, at any stage of motherhood, and find it to be just as sweet as the first read.
I’m thinking now of their words of grace as I prepare my breakfast. Maybe I should ration the jam. Dole out the drops one at a time. Only one PBJ for you this week. Sorry, just butter for your toast today. But what is a nutty slice of bread without the fresh taste of summer?
I scoop the knife into the jar, this time as a spoon. I dollop a more than necessary amount, cover the slice in the sweet juice. There is more than enough here for this breakfast.
I take a bite and savor it–abundance tasting a whole lot like grace.
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In honor of the sweet reminders of summer, I created a mocktail for us to savor the taste of abundance. This drink is made with simple ingredients you might have leftover from making breakfast. It’s the sweet dollop of jam mixed with the creamy scoop of yogurt. It’s the brightness of lemon and the sparkle of bubbly water. Want a little more time? Don’t we all. I can’t give you time, but I can give you thyme, which is just another reminder of the bright days of summer ahead.
Mix it all together with some hand crushed ice (because let’s be honest, bad days need to be crushed somehow). There you have it–something to savor in the afternoon while you read through The Beauty of Motherhood, reminding yourself of grace just as sweet and abundant as summer’s bounty in a jar.
Cheers to Erin and Kim as they celebrate their book The Beauty of Motherhood. And cheers to you, mother, in finding the sweet abundance of grace.
The Mother Mocktail**
1 T favorite jam*
1 T yogurt (plain or sweetened)
1-2 T lemon juice (adjust depending on level of sweetness)
2 oz. sparkling water
Fruit and herb for garnish*
Shake jam, yogurt, and lemon juice with 1-2 small ice cubes until ice is melted. Add to glass of crushed ice. Pour sparkling water over, gently stir, and garnish.
*I used raspberry and thyme but other combinations could be:
Strawberry and basil
Peach and mint
Blackberry and sage
** If you want to turn this into a cocktail just add 2 ounces of your favorite spirit. Cheers!