Mother's Day 2009

If you believe the commercials then you think Mother's Day is this fabulous affair where MOM is celebrated all day for all that she does. Her breakfast is brought to her in bed and she doesn't have to cook or clean for herself or anyone else all day. Her kids are dressed impeccably, not a hair out of place, not a wrinkle or stain in sight. And on top of that, she is showered with flowers and cards and lavish gifts. And while that might happen once every few years for a few truly lucky moms out there, I would be willing to bet it is not the common occurence retail-USA and Halmark make it out to be. (and really, if you got diamond jewelry every year you sure would end up with an awful lot after a while!) My Mother's Days are typically pretty decent but I have yet to get a breakfast in bed and I am still the one who is getting everyone dressed and groomed and out the door for church. I am after all still MOM, I don't get the day off from that. This year was looking to be pretty down right crap-tastic. Remember the stupid Warehouse Management System that was such a drain on our family life earlier? Well it was a total SANFU and the brilliant minds at Dell and Ceva decided Mother's Day Weekend would be the perfect weekend to re-release it. Oh joy. I haven't seen David during waking hours for what feels like forever now. He has been practically living at work since the first week in May. But I thought I would prepare myself for Mother's Day and make the best of a bad situation. So I begged off from my nursery shift at the church. I thought about treating myself and the girls to a lunch out after church but then thought it might be better to not fight the crowds and endure the stares (looking like a single mom struggling through Mother's Day). So I thought I'd make a fun lunch at home, maybe even have a picnic in the backyard. And then I thought maybe we'd try to find a showing of the Hannah Montana movie at a time that didn't conflict too badly w/Allison's nap.
BUT
*My period shows up during the impromptu garage sale on Saturday. Not thrilled with this but in a way sort of pleased as it was a day late.
*During the garage sale David comes home from work (he had gone in at MIDNITE) He is trying to sleep and we get the call from the service company regarding the AC at the rental house in Austin. It can be limped along but really needs to be replaced - probably to the tune of $3,000!! I had been so pleased at myself and my garage sale earnings. I hadn't even planned on having a sale but the neighborhood next to ours had a huge sign up touting their neighborhood sale and when I saw how much overflow traffic we ended up with on Friday, I decided to haul out what I could on Saturday see what I could sell. But now we need to fix the AC in Austin and my paltry $51 is looking completely inadequate.
*Allison was fighting her allergies pretty badly during the day Saturday and I was so distracted with the garage sale that I didn't keep on top of her allergy medicine. As a result, she was up every 2 hours Saturday night in to Sunday morning coughing, crying and just miserable in general.
*David left for work at something like 6am Sunday and I was just drifting back to sleep when I hear Audrey crying. She is in her bathroom trying to throw up. She can't, she has dry heaves. I bring her in my room - she keeps trying - then she suddenly has to use the bathroom and then while she is sitting on my toilet she is finally able to throw up - all over my bathroom floor.

Oh yeah - my Mother's Day was lookin' STELLAR at this point .... There's no way I can go to any part of church now and I'm also thinking a germy movie theater and junky movie theater food is just not wise.
BUT
The weather is simply gorgeous! And I have Grands cinnamon rolls I can make and tons of fruit - grapes, strawberries, and bananas. So breakfast is pretty yummy even if it isn't served to me in bed. (would have been even better with mimosas but ... oh well, maybe next year ....) And then I get to open the gifts Audrey and Amy made for me at school and they are so sweet and wonderful and I love them. After breakfast and gifts I head out to the backyard to work on the flower beds. I love gardening so this isn't a total chore. While I am out there I start thinking about how I really want a third shrub for this one bare corner. There are two shrubs set diagonally and if I could get a third and make a little triangle with them it would look so much better. Then I decide that darn it - it is MOTHER'S DAY after all!!! So I pack up the kids and we head out to find momma a shrub. We find one YEA! and we find it a Meijer's (like a Wal-Mart) so I also decide to get us some croissants from the bakery, sun chips, frozen chicken breasts, some dessert shells and whipped cream and some skinny cow ice cream sandwiches. Back home we go and we have croissant sandwiches and chips for lunch. After lunch the two who had been feeling sick seem to be feeling better. Allison goes down for a nap and I head out to plant my shrub and do a little more weeding. While I am busy gardening, Audrey and Amy set up a "spa" for me. After I am done with my gardening I get to sit in one of our adirondack chairs and soak my hands and feet and get a little neck and shoulder massage. Yeah, the water was LIKE ICE and yeah, the tub for my feet had a little bit of dirt and grass in it but that was all erased the second I looked into Audrey and Amy's faces. They were so pleased with their little spa. After my "treatments" I got to lay in the hammock for about half an hour and just enjoy the breezes and the sound of my older two playing near by. Dinner wasn't much - I grilled up some of those chicken breasts and heated up some peas. The girls had ice cream sandwiches for dessert and I had a little strawberry shortcake. After dinner we all went out in the driveway and played with bubbles and sidewalk chalk. Then it was inside for baths and TV and then bedtime. So all in all the day ended MUCH better than it started.
My Mother's Day didn't even come close to looking like those in the commercials but it definitely was all about being a mom - the hard parts and the amazingly rewarding parts. (and ok - I confess, I put a bottle of pinot grigio in the fridge at dinner and yeah, I had 1 ...2 .... well ok .... 3 glasses of it between bath time and bedtime ... so yeah, maybe that contributed to the good ending ...... but even without the wine, I LOVE being a mom and while I might want a tiny little break from it now and again, I wouldn't give it up for anything!)