I'm sure this is something that every stay-a-home mom questions at least once, if not many times during her career, but I'm starting to see this being a cycle for me. My wondering usually pops up after quite a few days of being at home, doing the routine, without any specific, carved out "me time." I think, to myself, after unloading and loading the dishwasher, washing the same sheets, and vacuuming the floor AGAIN, that I'm not really "doing" anything. I'm just going through routine. I've got my schedule and it works and then when 8 o'clock hits and the kids are in bed and I have free time, I'm EXHAUSTED. I just want to watch TV. And then I feel guilty because I didn't actually DO anything that day...I just did the routine! But my mind does usually start to reason with itself. I realize that even people who have jobs feel that their lives are mundane and its not being physically at home that provokes this feeling. Then my brain goes through a couple of more steps until I remember that what I am doing IS the most important job on earth, (to quote Oprah.) I am 
instilling values into them. I am teaching them manners. I am teaching them to respect others. I am trying to teach them to eat their vegetables. I am showing them what a loving family looks like. I am teaching them to value their alone time. I am showing them that life isn't all about rules. I am showing them what God's love looks like.So, all this is to say that I do believe that I will cycle through these questions and answers many times during my life, probably many times during the year, and that's OK.
I have a friend who is a mom of five, most of whom are grown now, and she has mentioned numerous times that the most exhausting part of being a mom is that there is rarely a task that you do that doesn't have to be re-done! The deeper I get into mothering, the more I see this to be true... Thanks for the reminder that the constant redoing is teaching our kids many many things!
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