Lions, & Tigers, & Bears...& Snakes, too! Oh, My!

W at around 20 months old - doing his animal noises...by far, my favorite is his reaction to the snake...

My Day for Mothers....

Another Mother's Day has come and gone...my Mother's Day was more like a Mother's Week, which was fantastic. The kids brought home Mother's Day artwork and presents they made at school all week long...they wanted to celebrate "Mother's Day Eve" - since Christmas had an Eve, shouldn't Mother's Day? (That's A's logic)...who could argue if it got them to behave at least 10 minutes more? :)

On Friday, I got home from work and I heard the angels start to sing - HAL-LE-LU-JAH!!! Dear Hubby had given me the mother of all mother's day presents - he had the Merry Maids in to our house to clean from top to bottom...2 maids/3 hours/rare guilt-free down time for me!!! Woo hoo! It was fantastic. I loved it...there was just something so soothing about coming home to a house that was clean...typically, by Fridays, our house is a disaster area since I've been at work all week and chasing the kids around...I spend a large part of my days off trying to make a dent in the mountains of housework that have built up. NOT THIS MOTHER'S DAY WEEKEND!! In fact, Hubby and A&W all think we need to do this on a permanent basis because it made Mommy so happy. :) Hmmm....if only the budget would agree.

On Saturday, my parents and Hubby's parents were all in town, taking care of some errands, celebrating Mother's Day, and they were able to make it to A's end-of-year piano recital...

A did a fantastic job...she never gets nervous at these kinds of events...she loves it. It's her daddy's rock-star personality coming out in her. In fact, when she was 4, she wanted to quit ballet and tap dance because it hurt her feet...but the moment I mentioned that if she quit, she wouldn't get to be in the dance recital on stage at the end of the year, she says "ON STAGE? I GET TO BE ON STAGE?" and changed her mind about quitting after all. :)

On the ACTUAL Mother's Day - you know, the day after Mother's Day Eve - I was served breakfast in bed. Nice, huh? Of course, being a Sunday morning, Dear Hubby was hard at work at his job and not home when me and the munchkins woke up..so the munchkins took it upon themselves to make Mommy breakfast in bed...cereal and a cherry poptart. My cereal even had milk in it and my pop tart was warm. Of course, after I ate and got out of bed, I discovered that the milk pouring was a little challenging and had resulted in milk and cereal all over my newly merry-maid mopped kitchen floor, but A & W had worked VERY HARD to clean it up themselves...so I let it slide and re-mopped later. :)

We went to church, I taught Sunday School, and then A&W and I left for a surprise visit to my mom in Turkey. I had just seen her the day before for the recital, but I just could not let the first Mother's Day without my Ma (and my mom without her own mother) go by without spending every minute of it I could with my mom - and I thought I should go ahead and teach my Sunday School class kind of as a tribute to my Ma, who was a Sunday School teacher for over 50 years (yes, I said 50 YEARS!) Throughout the day, there was an undercurrent of sadness that we all felt, a feeling of loss....but we made it through the day together.

My Ma and My Mom...2 of the most amazing ladies I know.

It made me think alot about my mom...and my ma....and my heritage...and how blessed I am. I got my mom a card this year that was very simple - it read "You are strength...You are wisdom...You are love...." and then on the inside it says "You are amazing..." If I had to sum up my mom in a few words, those are definitely the right ones...she is a tower of strength - not only for me, but for her whole family - I see strength in her character, in her faith, in her work ethic, in her devotion to her family. She is wisdom - my mom is very wise (I won't go so far to admit she is always RIGHT, but she is very wise!) and I depend on her to advise me on many situations, especially when it comes to being a mom. She is love - to watch her as she selflessly serves her family, her church, her kids at the library (my mom's a city librarian)...she thrives on it. I know that A&W have no doubts in their minds whatsoever that Grandma loves them because she spends time with them - doing things together...taking walks, hunting for bugs or frogs or rocks, putting puzzles together, making cookies. My mom knows my kids - their likes and dislikes, their little quirks, their dreams. That was exactly the way my Ma was with me and my cousins - we never ever doubted that she loved us...she spent TIME with us - as kids, she sang silly songs with us, she made us cowboy pancakes, she played games with us, she hunted rocks with us. I'm so glad for that heritage...

I hope that someday I can be even 1/2 of the Grandma that my mom is and that my Ma was....