Mother's Day 2013

I like Mother's Day.  I love that for the  first time in several years I got the kids to make homemade cards for grandmothers Harris and Hill and great-grandma Knight in a timely manner......granted, they were FedExed, but still, at least they got them by Mother's Day!  I like getting breakfast in bed (the past few years) surrounded by little boys with homemade cards and requests for bites of my toast.  I didn't like sending Caleb off this morning of all mornings on a 3-night 4-day field trip with his 7th grade class, but I like that he is capable of being a great boy without me.  I like reminding them what it was like on the day that they were born and how much in love I felt with them.   I like getting a new card from Liam with coupons for free massages and bathroom cleaning days or other random freebies.  I love getting new kitchen tools and I love that Jonah really thinks I should and could be a professional chef and would like me to do it ... except for the fact that I wouldn't be here when he came home from school ... or when he went to bed at night ... so maybe not.  I love that in addition to the traditional singing in church today from the primary kids, I got to watch Liam and Gavin play an instrumental duet on their strings of I Often Go Walking.  I loved that (for the most part) dinner was made without me and (for the most part) it was cleaned up without me.....I can't really ever escape the kitchen to be honest.  I loved that tonight we took a walk on my favorite trail that leads to Jefferson's Monticello, past the huge tree stumps, and that Jared told stories of our honeymoon.  I love that I got to lay by Jonah and then Gavin in our nightly routine, and listen to what they care most about today:  Jonah:  " I really want to go to the zoo in New Zealand to see a Tuatara, can we do that?"  Gavin:  "I have to go to bed because I have SOL's (standards of learning test) and I'm kind of worried".  Me: " but they are really testing your teachers Gavin".  G:  "Then I'm going to do my best because I don't want Mrs Robinson to make us do any more of those stupid practice sheets!"  I love that I get to spend the rest of the night sitting with Liam while he finished reading another thick book "Under Wildwood" by Colin Meloy (lead singer of the Decemberists), while Jared played one of their songs, Rise to Me, on guitar.  I love being a mom, love it.  It's hard, yes, and some days (more than I would like to admit) I'm really pathetic and totally off my game, but some days I'm on and I like that too.


Photos from the walk tonight: