Mother's Day Mocha Mahem and Other Love

Aw, Mother's Day.  I have such mixed feelings about that day.  I fall for it every year...that eager anticipation of a day "all about me", being relaxed, chilled, off-duty and lavished with thanks and love.

And then, as the day draws closer, I start missing my mom in a huge way.  Missing the opportunity to honor her, celebrate with her, and lavish thanks and love upon her.

And every year I make a very purposeful choice to not focus on that part of Mother's Day and focus on the joy of being a mom.  And I mostly succeed.  And then, on a year like this year, when I find myself on the night before Mother's Day following behind my son and his date to do the fun pre-prom photo shoot, I start thinking about all the occasions I am missing having WITH her.  She would have loved watching all the hoopla on Saturday night.  She would have been so proud of her grandson, for so many reasons.  The grandson she never had the chance to meet.  She would have been wildly snapping her own pictures, and probably chopping off heads in every picture she took.  Then trying again.  And the sweet Alaina?  She would have loved her instantly.  So as we drove behind them, and I had one of those "my baby is growing up!" thoughts go through my head, combined with missing my mom's involvement in the fun of life, I started to shed some tears.

And then Mother's Day morn arrives.  Brad was so kind to bring me my favorite grande mocha, decaf with half the chocolate, and a cinnamon roll and the Sunday paper.  Perfect way to totally relax and ease my way into the day.  And then...

A flurry of activity and a bump of the hand and my mocha tipped over, the lid popping off, and hot mocha going all over 2 of my sofa cushions, spilling onto me and the carpet.  And the Sunday paper.

Blissful moment over.

Instead, clean, clean, clean...the sofa cushions, the sectional pulled apart to clean the carpet...not the easing into the day one would assume Mother's Day would bring.

So off to return Alex's tux accessories from the night before, then to Costco to pick up my prescription refill...oh, the pharmacy is closed on Sunday.

Then off to Tacoma for Alex's Youth Symphony concert.

THREE HOURS later we came back out!  THREE HOUR concert.  Ugh.  Beautiful music, don't get me wrong....just way too much of it.

We finally ate dinner at 7:15, by this time all I had eaten all day was the half of a cinnamon roll I got down before the Mother's Day Mocha Mayhem broke out.  The cold I was battling was screaming at me, my head was pounding from hunger, and I was realizing that the relaxed, chill-out, off-duty, lavished-upon day was not meant to be.

So after getting some food in me and my blood sugar back up to a functional range, I received gifts.  And love.

Although the day was not something out of a Hallmark commercial, it was sweet because I was with my kids, doing real-life, uncomplicated, normal things.  There's a sweetness in simplicity, especially when it comes to being loved.

I'm so thankful to be a mom.  To be loved by these three is a gift I am blessed every day with.  I don't need a holiday to be reminded of that.  They love me on a regular Tuesday as much as they do on "Mother's Day".

They are not capable of understanding this yet, but I love them more.

Alex bought me a Costco box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.  Last time I bought it as a special treat for myself, my kids ate it all.  I'm guessing I made a big enough stink about that, since Alex remembered and replaced it.  And the Cookie Monster card with a sweet message inside?  Sweet, thoughtful boy is all I can say about that.  Oh, but I must add that he "wrapped" my present in his gym bag.  Reduce, reuse, recycle is alive and well.

The sweet Brenna Kay gave me the necklace I'm wearing, a heart she made in shop last year and forgot to give me, and she wrote me a precious poem.  Love this girl's tender, giving heart so much.  And I'll think of it every time I wear my new heart necklace or see my wooden heart thingy.

And my sweet Bethie made a teacup card with a tea bag inside, and a little bag of cookies to go with it.  Inside the card are the sweetest words a mommy would ever want to read.  This was my last gift ever made from elementary school.  Sniff.

So a day that started with a bit of mayhem ended with being lavished with love.  I'd say that's a perfect Mother's Day after all.

Oh, and my "big" gift from Brad and the kids?  I'm a bit embarrassed to say I was spoiled with an iPad.  I'm not even sure what to do with it yet, other that check facebook and play Scramble and Draw Something without squinting at the little screens.  I'm sure I'll learn.  My 42-year old eyes are loving the big screen!!

When I said that it was way too much, Brenna said, "Oh, no, Mommy.  It's the least we could give you for all you do for us!"

Sweetness.