Buttons

Years ago, before we had kids, I was talking to one of my friends about motherhood.  She was a stay-at-home mom with a 1 year old.  I was working full time and wondering what life would be like staying home with nothing to do but care for a child.
"Don't you get bored?"  I asked her.
"No, not really,"  she replied.  "There's always something to do and babies take a lot of time."
Her answer wasn't good enough for me.  "Well, what did you do today?"  I asked her.
"Well, besides taking care of the baby, cooking, doing laundry, and cleaning the apartment, there wasn't much time left in my day.  But I did get a drawer cleaned out.  I've been meaning to get that done for a long time."  
What?  I thought in my head.  Her day is productive and fulfilling because she cleaned out a stupid drawer?
Well fast forward eleven years and if someone were to ask me why my day felt fulfilling, meaningful, and worth getting out of bed for, I'd tell them about what happened tonight.
Tonight I taught my little boy how to button his shirt.  Seriously.  And I loved every second of his cute little face scrunched up in concentration as he clumsily tried to push the button through the hole.  We threw our hands in the air and cheered at his accomplishment, then he ran downstairs to tell his brothers that he was the Button Boy!  For him it was life changing and for me, it validated my day.  Sometimes it can be boring and lonely or completely chaotic but hey, if I ever have a spare moment I've got at least ten drawers I need to clean out.  Getting that done would really be something!