(And a Happy Mother's Day for Me, Too)

(I have some pretty decided opinions about Mother's Day. I love to honor my mother, and a holiday celebrating a pretty selfless job is always great and all, but I detest "Hallmark" holidays, and Mother's Day is a good example of one. (So is Valentine's Day.) Mothers are very important, but Mother's Day has somehow turned into an angsty, fraught-with-emotion, full-of-ways-to-offend-and-be-offended holiday that it is just ridiculous.

So, for me, I try to come to Mother's Day with no expectations for myself--yes, I am a mother, but it is not my husband's responsibility to celebrate Mother's Day for me, that would be my kids' responsibility. My husband and I need to celebrate our mothers in whatever way we feel best. I think this holiday would work best if everyone just celebrated "up"--that is, their own mothers and mother-figures. Then nobody would get hurt and sad that they didn't get celebrated. Your mileage may vary, as they say in internet lingo, and I hope your day yesterday was lovely and wonderful.)

Having said all that, now, I will tell you about my Mother's Day. Because, oddly enough, my Mother's Day yesterday was amusingly stereotypical.

Within minutes of waking up, Zee remembered what the day was. Running to his bedroom, he retrieved the present he had hidden on Thursday, after bringing it home from school. He was so excited to give it to me. The paper plate with his handprint and the "handprint" poem is adorable, but even more precious to me is the little card he wrote--all by himself--that says "I love you" and "You are swet" (which I am interpreting as "sweet" rather than "sweaty"). It's so much fun to watch Zee blossom into a real boy, what with the reading and writing.

This gifting prompted Gee to remember his Mother's Day school present, which was then retrieved. This was a card (stickers applied by Gee), a painted wooden frame, and a beaded necklace. The necklace was immediately claimed by Gee, and it was only with great difficultly that I was able to convince him to let me wear it to church.

Em, who isn't in school, was very disturbed that she didn't have a present for me, so Daddy took her upstairs and supplied crayons and paper. And, oh, the pictures she drew! Pictures of me and her, of me and my sister Telima, of me surrounded by a tornado (but "a nice tornado, Momma"), of me surrounded by hearts, of me in a maze. So many beautiful pictures from my little artist.

Then my sweet husband (who also got me a new freezer cookbook, yay!) had the kids "help" him make pancakes and strawberries and orange juice, and they brought it down to me to eat in bed. Zee and Em were so proud of themselves, helping Daddy serve Momma. Zee was particularly adorable, asking what else he could do to help me today. It's nice to see that he isn't always a complete heathen, as six-year-olds often are.

So it was a wonderful and sweet Mother's Day altogether. Thank you, my marvelous family!