Anatomy of a Mother's Day

I have a vivid memory of copying some poem off a blackboard in elementary school very carefully in loopy second grade handwriting. The poem was for Mother's Day cards and I remember thinking how touched my mother would be when she read this copied poem I had created for her. I had a bit of a dramatic streak as a child and I am sure I envisioned my mother weeping tears of gratitude as she opened this pink card filled with eraser marks and crayon-drawn flowers.

I am sure she was touched and I am pretty sure that handwritten card is tucked away in my special drawer (my mom keeps drawers of all of my brothers' and my special things)...and I am also pretty sure my mom would have been really happy that year if I had presented her with an hour of peace and quiet to go along with my handwritten card.

I have had a fabulous Mother's Day this year. I think Woodrow Wilson did all mothers of our great country a honorable favor when he established this day of recognition so many years ago. He just left out one tiny little detail....the fact that Moms still have to be moms on Mother's Day.

In order to avoid the large crowds, we went out for our Mother's Day meal on Saturday evening. Despite arriving at the restaurant super-early we were faced with a thirty minute wait. The children had been at their grandparents all day and I had arrived with a small purse...one that contained no survival items needed for a thirty minute wait with young children.

A tank of lobsters and joyful grandparents helped us through these thirty minutes and we finally were seated at our table....only for Evelyn to COMPLETELY. MELT. DOWN. over a chocolate milk straw issue.

Fortunately we were seated at the very back table of this fine establishment so I only had to pass 50 or so odd diners on my loooooooooong trek to the door as I attempted to exit with a tantruming toddler in my hands.

Happy Mothers Day to me. Isn't Mommyhood glamorous?

Evelyn calmed down (mainly due to the fact temperatures in our area dropped yesterday and she was too cold to have a fit outside for an extended amount of time), we returned to our table, and proceeded to finish our meal. Service was not great at this particular restaurant, both kids were a bit testy, and I began wondering why we even attempted to eat at somewhere that does not incorporate "Playplace" into their general decor.

But we survived and I think I ate some shrimp.

This morning I woke up to find an email with this link

http://news.cnnbcvideo.com/?nid=4hD.3wZ8KQccXSvEk_P_ejEzMzA4MjM1&referred_by=3805849-UGRul9x&p=moveon )

in my inbox. Isn't my husband terribly clever? After the usual marathon of getting children up, fed, dressed, disciplined, hair fixed, disciplined some more, hair fixed once again due to an impromptu gymnastics session on the couch, disappointment handed out when Mommy would not allow anyone to color in their church clothes, my ownself dressed and groomed; we finally arrived at church.

Children were deposited in their respective Sunday school classrooms and I settled in on the pew next to my husband. We were about four songs in when a teacher approached us during service and said that Evelyn was sick. I went to retrieve her, expecting to see some sort of tummy issue and wondering if our dry cleaners would be able to salvage her pretty dress, only to discover that she was not sick at all. The teacher felt that she did not need to stay in the classroom due to her runny nose. The teacher was new and I refrained from going into long detail with her about how Evelyn's nose has been running for two years and that she was not contagious, but decided to simply scoop up our little girl and remove her from the class.

Evelyn, Tobe, and I hung out in the church study during services rather than enduring a long struggle of getting a wiggly, loud little girl to sit still during the sermon. After church, we all headed home for some pictures (which I used marshmallows to bribe the children in order to get a few smiles out of them) and lunch.

Naps were taken, time was spent outside (in which one child had to be placed in time-out for attempting to sit on his sister and the other child had to be placed in time-out for attempting to feed her brother wood chips. Sheesh. Who are these children some days?), dinner was consumed, baths were administered, stories were read, backs were rubbed, lights were turned off....and this Mommy is tired.

Being a mom certainly is not glamorous at times, it is beyond exhausting some days, it causes the strangest phrases to tumble from my mouth ("Do not stick the bell pepper in the bubble container" Seriously. I said this not even six hours ago.), it creates laughter and frustration all in the same minute, and it is the most wonderful thing ever.

Happy Mother's Day, Blog World!