A Very Memorable Mother's Day

I love Mother's day as a day to honor my mother. My mom is amazing. The only bad thing about my mom is she is so great that it is impossible for me to ever feel I am as good a mother as she is. But I am eternally grateful that my mom and I have always enjoyed each other (except for a few of those teen drama moments when it was all me causing the tension). And I love celebrating her greatness on Mother's Day.

But I must be honest that after becoming a mom myself I had a love-hate relationship with Mother's Day. My biggest beef is that in order to be "eligible" to celebrate Mother's Day there was not a whole lot you could do to celebrate. I found the expectation of this "perfect day for mom" is unrealistically high and it almost always led to a let-down.. (Even my own perfect mom got a little fed up with the high expectations of a happy day as remembered by the infamous "jelly donut incident" In which my sister bit into a donut she thought was jelly and it turned out to be cream. My sister's great disappointment was only worsened when my brother guffawed, pointing his finger at her. Then my dad did what all dads seem to do on Mother's Day: He yelled and screamed and told everyone to be nice to each other because it is Mother's Day. My mom had the best and most reasonable reaction of all. She said "I am going for a walk" and dissappered for several hours.)

I preface this entry by all of this because I do not want to be one of those moms that writes of perfection and encourages congratulatory pats on the back. I think we as Team Mothers do ourselves a great disservice pretending all is perfect. It is great to celebrate our highs, as this post will do, while also acknowledging our lows and disappointments. This way we celebrate each others joys while also supporting each others challenges.

So now that I have given all this background, I do want to write the details of a most wonderful Mother's Day. This Mother's Day was very different from others. It is the first time since I became a mom that I was not with my mom. I cannot recall if I would be home in time when I was in college by it was certainly the norm for me to be celebrating with my mom just about every single Mother's Day. I was a little nervous about being apart from my mom this year. But I decided rather than dwell on the missing part I would just postpone celebrating mom and focus on having a good day myself. (I was also able to start my Mother's Day with a nice FaceTime session with my mom which helped.)

It was always a tradition growing up to spend Mother's Day working on the yard. We decided we would begin this tradition n Colorado. Laurel said she wanted to plan all the meals for the day so I could focus on the flowers and yard. On Friday I took her to the store so she could get the ingredients.

First thing Sunday morning I went to church. No one else wanted to go, but that was fine. I enjoyed the peaceful start to the day. When I got home there was a wonderful spread for breakfast. Laurel made homemade banana muffins for breakfast along with a protein smoothie. After a hearty breakfast we all went outside to work on the yard. Laurel prepared the herb garden for planting while Owen and I planted annuals out front. Justin put together the new lawn mower. After a few hours of everyone pitching in, the outside was looking pretty good. Laurel made a delicious fried rice meal for lunch while I got ready for a two hour yoga class. After the yoga class Laurel and Owen and I went swimming in the heated neighborhood pool that is only a block from our house. Laurel was planning to make dinner too but we were having so much fun at the pool we decided to do takeout and then Laurel made the dinner meal (salad and pizza) one night during the week when I had to work late.

The best part of the day was that everyone was helpful and happy. I really enjoyed spending the day together, contributing to the yard as a family and getting a day off from the never ending question: What's for dinner?