My 2013 Mother's Day

The weekend may not have gone as planned - at all - but here it is Sunday night and overall I feel so happy.

We are in the middle of landscaping our yard and Devin is doing most of it himself (more on this later).  Saturday morning we were set to have someone with a Bobcat come and spread our topsoil for us while Devin went behind him and evened it all out.

Original plan?  Do this for 3-4 hours then head to Thanksgiving Point with the kids to see the new baby animals.

What actually happened?  I took 3 children to a toy store in the morning to get a gift for a neighbor's baby shower.  Relatively speaking, my kids were good, but still...it was a toy store and we were not there to buy anything for them. You can imagine, right?

We then stopped at the store for some much needed popsicles.  It finally feels hot.

I headed home to find that this topsoil project was going to take at least twice as long as planned.  Devin stayed outside all day working.  I stayed inside all day working.  Jonas and Nell were a bit difficult and I found myself getting frustrated.  I finally got Nell down for a nap and Jonas happily playing so I madly cleaned my house so I could at least wake up to a clean house on Mother's Day...plus living in a dirt bowl makes for one filthy floor!!

Thankfully I had a fun dinner out planned with three of my neighbors.  One is expecting a baby soon so it was a fun pseudo baby shower.  Dinner was delicious and conversation was fun.  We got home to find all the kids and dads playing outside. It was a nice end to a hectic day.

I should back up though and tell you about my very thoughtful daughter.  She has been talking about making me breakfast in bed for a week now and realizing that we had early church on Sunday she came to me Saturday morning and asked if we could make a big breakfast then and have leftovers for me to eat Sunday morning.  I told her I'd be fine with toast and yogurt Sunday and not to worry.

So, Sunday morning I was delivered toast and yogurt to my bedroom while I was getting ready.  Next to my tray was her gift.  She had saved her classroom points to buy me a bookmark and done some pretty artwork.

I had to laugh as I read what she wrote at school.  Some highlights:

In answer to how we are different:  "My mom likes to do laundry but I don't.  I think doing laundry is a waste of time.  She thinks it's good to do.  She's awesome."

There was also this gem:  "My mom never gets really mad but she can get kind of mad.  I love her."

There were other cute and thoughtful comments but these elicited the biggest laughs on my part.

Jonas also had some art & a question/answer paper for me.  Here's how his went...
My mom's name is "mommy and Melinda".
She has "blue" eyes and "brown hair" (he's actually not the first boy to comment on my blue eyes...except that they're brown)
She weighs "2" pounds. (THANKS!!!)
She is "10" years old.  No...4.
Her favorite food is "pizza".
She looks pretty when "she wears make up and is nice"
This is what I like to do with my mom:  play things.
My mom really likes to:  clean up food.  (HUH????)
My mom is funny when "she's happy"
My mom gets mad when "she gets tired" (probably true)
I love my mom because "I love her".

I love getting these homemade crafts & thoughts from my kids.  They do make me so happy.

We got home from church to a very cranky Jonas and Nell - not much had changed over the weekend.  I tried to be patient but it was hard.

I then checked my email and saw that my dear friend Megan had posted on her blog.  You can read it here.  While kids were arguing and eating, I slipped away to read her post.  It made me cry but also made me so grateful for these experiences I am going through and helped me keep it all in perspective.  I was so grateful for her thoughts and words.  I can always count on her to think deeply about a topic and then be able to articulate it beautifully.  I wish I could be more like that.

We then loaded in the car to head to the gravesides of my two grandmothers buried here in Salt Lake City.  Both had birthdays this past week so that in combination with Mother's day seemed like the perfect opportunity to bring some flowers and pay my respect to these marvelous women, mothers & examples in my life.

Grandma and Grandpa McMahon's graveside.  Don't even ask me where Nell was!

Grandma and Grandpa Morris's graveside

Nell was anything but respectful and that was frustrating.  I apologize to anyone whom she may have offended while running over graves as I tried to push Jonas' wheelchair and Devin searched for graves. Agh!  Again, didn't go as picture perfect as I imagined (I couldn't even manage one good picture of us) but we did our best.

Once home, Devin and Clara made me a delicious dinner (while Jonas and Nell dumped a bag of sunflower seeds all over the car).  I got to talk to my wonderful mom on the phone. We played memory all together (again...sometimes things are just more fun in my head than they turn out to be, like playing memory with a 2 year old).  Then it was bedtime for Jonas and Nell.  Lastly we enjoyed brownies with Clara that she has made earlier in the day.

I had a great day/weekend overall and even though it did not all go smoothly, I know my family tried so hard to make my day special - and it was!  What I love is that while downloading the pictures from the weekend, I look at them and feel so much happiness.  Take the popsicle pictures for example, what isn't obvious is how sticky my kids were and how Nell's popsicle kept breaking off and falling and before I could stop her, she'd pick it up and shove her dirt-covered popsicle piece into her mouth!  I just know she's going to get worms soon.  But even just one day later, I can look at these pictures and laugh at the dirt and be reminded of my love for my children.   I wouldn't give anything up for the experiences I am having raising these three amazing and beautiful children.

I was also reminded today of the many women in my life that have helped shaped me as a mother.  There are many obvious ones - my mom, two grandmothers, mother-in-law, aunts, sisters-in-law - but also many other women, including friends, Wendy, and fellow Spina Bifida moms.  Some have already done what I'm doing and have shown me great examples of what to do.  Others are in my same phase yet still teach me so much.  I'm grateful all the women in my life who I look up to and respect, there are many of you!  I wish each of you a very happy Mother's Day!