It’s not magic, I’m a mom.

My family has been ransacked with the stomach bug this week. It’s almost as fun as a root canal and nearly as delightful as paying taxes. Seriously, though. When you have a larger family and one is suddenly sick, you panic. You immediately start to worry that everyone else in the house is going to get it. You start imagining elaborate plans of quarantine, determined to keep the bug from spreading, only to watch in resigned acceptance as your children all accidentally drink from the same cup and lick each other. Sigh.

Last night, I set up my middle child in the guest room so he could be closer to my husband and I should he need us in the night. When I told him it was time to go to bed he said, “Well, we’ve got to set up the bed.” I just led him into the room and he marveled that the bed was already made up. “The bed’s already made???” he asked, shocked and impressed. I just shook my head and said the following:

“It’s not magic, it’s your mom.”

I kind of half chuckled and then wondered to myself how many things in my kids’ lives sort of just appear to them, just like magic? They wake up each day and find their breakfast waiting and their lunches made. Their closets are always filled with clean clothes, despite how dirty they were when they deposited them into their hampers. They are taken to and from school when they need to be there, their outgrown pants get replaced with pants that fit, and on and on and on (and on and on). Just like magic, right?

Except it’s not magic. It’s the concentrated and thoughtful efforts of someone behind the scenes thinking, planning, and executing one thousand things each day. A lot of those things will never be recognized or realized or even noticed by our kids.

But I want you to know something: I notice, I see. I look at your smiling, tired faces each Sunday and know that it must have taken a Titanic-sized amount of effort to get your family (all wearing at least moderately clean clothes) to church on time. It’s not magic. It’s you working hard and often thanklessly. So can I be the first one today to say to you “Wow, great job on keeping your kids from running out of pants this week!” or “I notice that all the beds in your house have clean sheets – bravo!”

You’re doing a great job today, Magic Moms, even if no one else sees.