Awards, Rewards and The Real Stuff...

Each week I attend meetings through the Boise Chamber of Commerce for our family business.   Each person in attendance has a few moments to introduce their business, tell some highlights and then address the specific topic of the week...

The topic for this week (which we find out just moments before addressing it) was to tell the rest of the Chamber Members about the most recent or most significant award you had received. 

DANG IT!!!

Not a darn thing to share...I've never been awarded with anything fabulous...what was I to do?  What could I say?  Was there anything to share?  Any thoughts?

As we went around the room, there were so many great awards that these people had received during their lifetimes...many had recently been nominated to receive additional awards...only a couple had as little as I did to share.  Some shared funny stories, some inspiring, some very recent and some from their pasts...

So as I left this meeting and started my journey back to my life at home, being the mom, doing my homeschool thing and running our business and family life...I pondered what this meant to me.

Does it matter that my walls are not filled with awards for this and that, does it matter that I haven't REALLY done anything note able, does it matter that I don't REALLY care? 
I kinda thought I cared, but only for a moment or two...
then I thought about the things that do hang upon my walls... 
Photos of the most adorable little people in the world, photos or paintings of things that make me smile and help me keep dreaming, calendars of our life, artwork from all my little artists...these are the things that make my walls and me happy!

My awards, my most precious of all things, are not REALLY things at all. 
And guess what,
I have done some pretty darn note able things in this world...I am raising some mighty fantastic kiddos and I am proud to be their Momma. 
I don't have awards that say I've achieved great things, but I have the reward of spending my days with the people I love the very most in the world.

I left my blog open as I went to a meeting last night and came home to this adorable message that I must share: 

Congratulations Stacey Lytle! You were nominated and after careful consideration, a unanimous decision was made, it is our great honor to award you with The Greatest Wife and Mother award. You earned it! Love your family :)

It is moments like this that I just have to smile...my life ROCKS!!!
It's the Real Stuff that makes me happy and makes life worth living, not the awards or the rewards or the trophies or the plaques...Just the sweet comments, the hugs and kisses and the smiles that tell me just how they feel about me!

BEING the MOM is the only AWARD I need and I got it day in and day out!