pfft! mother's day is every day...

my very first mother's day was pretty grand. my baby boy was 6 months old and such a happy, easy going baby. by that time he was sleeping through the night and so were we. it was a gorgeous sunday morning filled with sunshine, a picnic at bridal veil falls, flowers, an ice cream cake, and sam taking over diaper duty.

fast forward 7 years.

sam is in his last week of finals (ever) for law school.

add three more kids to the mix.

i got to preschool just in time to see makayah freeing her butterflies. they had all, obviously started out as caterpillars that the kids would feed and care for.

these days, "mother's day" starts on friday. makayah is eager to present me with her fabulously handmade gift. so eager, in fact, that when we get home from preschool, she tears open the gift herself, throws the bouquet of purple flower weeds in the air along with the pink tissue paper used to wrap the gift, and exclaims, "here you go, mom! i opened it for you! it's a garden stepping stone!"



amid the frantic gift unwrapping, i managed to rescue my mother's day card from the pink tissue paper wreck.

later on that friday afternoon, i picked up isaiah and was under strict orders to cover my eyes. no peeking! i'd learned my lesson. last year, i accidently uncovered my mother's day surprise while checking for important papers in his backpack and isaiah was heartbroken and extremely disappointed about the ruined surprise. so, i did as i was told.

however, isaiah couldn't wait much longer than saturday morning to unveil his mother's day gift...a beautiful golden marigold sitting in a pot he painted himself. for some reason, the cards don't seem quite as significant to them, and i had to rescue my card from the aftermath, once again.

i guess you could say saturday morning was the true beginning of my mother's day "celebration."

sam was on campus taking his very last final exam. after the kids and i had our weekend morning brunch, i proceeded to deliver everyone's saturday chores. try that sometime, and you will be amazed at how unpopular you become...

one minute, my gifts are being excitedly thrown into my arms, and the next minute, my decorative garden stone and marigold are being held hostage and threats of destruction are being spewed forth. i make my kids clean. i know, i'm a mean mom.

"why do you hate us?!"

"why do we ALWAYS have to clean?!"

"you treat us like your slaves!"

okay, time out. no, seriously, time out. the kids were sent to their rooms because i really didn't feel like having a nervous breakdown triggered by all that shameless whining. nails on a chalkboard, that's all i gotta say.

and then cries of...

"we're just bad kids and you don't love us!"

"fine, i guess i'll just pack up and run away!"

"you love baby brother more than us! you didn't send him to time out!"

well...

as reality would have it, mother's day didn't end there.

sam came home after a long morning of frying his brains over lawyer questions and graciously took the kids out fishing. he fed them cheetos and twinkies for dinner. i really shouldn't complain.

getting ready for fishing.

don't you just love her fishing garb?

 a wild goose chase.

the kids ended up being honked at by the mamas of the bunch. ;)

this is what happens when i'm left with the two youngest, and i'm stuck on the couch feeding the babe...



apparently, she was quite hungry herself.

mimzy's silence amongst the sound of refrigerator doors opening, and wrappers unwrapping is never a good thing...

that night, unfortunately, and rather stupidly, i stayed up until midnight...which meant i only got in 2 hours of sleep before mosiah's first feeding of the night. the second feeding occurred at 4am. don't get me wrong, i truly do love our nightly cuddle time.



but, lets be honest...by the 4th week after the energy stores are gone, and the fact that i'm just not smart enough to go to bed at 10pm when mosiah does - well, it can be enough to wear a gal out come 6 in the morning. and 6am is when i heard the knock on our bedroom door. i sleepily nudged sam. he nudged me back.

i whispered, "hey, answer the door - it's samiyah."

sam, still half asleep, said, "you get it."

i half whispered, "IT'S MOTHER'S DAY!" 

"what? what? oh."

sam realized what was going on once he shook the sleep from his head. he quickly got up, hauled samiyah out to the kitchen and proceeded to feed the kids breakfast...or, so i thought. suddenly, the sound of cellophane hitting the neighboring pillow woke me up.

sam was at the bedroom door, "happy mother's day! breakfast in bed!"

a wrapped, single serving sized little debbie's oatmeal cream pie was staring me in the face..

you shouldn't have. no, really.

i laughed that laugh that says, "i know you're joking, now go get me my tray of real food."

the benefit of being married for 8 years is the ability to sometimes read each other's minds. 

sam read my thoughts perfectly and pouted, "aw, geez. the kids loved them. you're no fun."

"you fed them oatmeal cream pies for BREAKFAST?!"

he ran out of the door, pretending not to hear me. however, not long after, i did receive a baby tray of delicious looking breakfast foods - like, real breakfast food. i sat in peaceful calm, feeding the baby and eating my omelet with toast and oj, while sam corralled the kids into their sunday best. no, we weren't on time like i had hoped we'd be, but we did make it to church, and that was probably more realistic for our new family of six anyhow.



i visited and caught up with friends, enjoyed a beautiful lesson on prayer, and took home my mother's day mango. :)

before we actually made it home, we took a slight detour in the direction of sonic for a mother's day cherry limeade. 

cherry limeade + one white dress = what were we thinking?

call me crazy, but i also wanted to take a couple pictures of my crazy, adorable children.

sam obliged - only because it was mother's day. i don't blame him, and was actually quite surprised he so readily agreed.

we found our spot at the arboretum. samiyah immediately wandered out into the wilderness, makayah jumped out and sat posed like a pro, isaiah tried to figure out how to hold baby mo AND smile all while looking at the camera. as usual, it was quite the circus act. and for an entire 5 minutes, we tried.

i think the highlight of our day was the dinner we had with friends that evening. the kids ran and played in the vast, grassy fields of eagle heights. the adults engaged in grown-up conversation and we even used grown-up words - although, i'm sure their was a "potty" or "poopy" that snuck into the convo at some point. ;) the evening was so very fun and lovely, everything except the terrible news of one of our friends who's child had a horrible accident earlier that day. we were all pretty concerned and definitely prayed for them that night.

so, there you have it. mother's day. while at the dinner table with our friends, we joked about how we got to take naps or didn't get to take naps, how the husbands helped, and how the children made things memorable...

sam, holding nothing back, said, "helping with diapers? helping watch kids? i do that all the time. pfft! mother's day is EVERY DAY. lucky you!"

without an ounce of sarcasm - okay, maybe just a teensy bit (i can't help it) - i totally agree. lucky me. there may not be time for a 24 hour pampering or even 12 hours of complete and utter appreciation of mommies. the reality is, mother's day IS every day. being a mother - in every shape and form, whether you are biological, auntie, friend, guardian - is work, plain and simple. 

i am up to my arms in poopy diapers. i am drowning in "why" questions on a daily basis. i am a constant referee of who did what to whom. my lap is overfilled beyond capacity kissing owies and feeding babies. and i'm sure at some point i will go deaf from all the incessant whining. yes, it's exhausting. yes, i feel like my head will explode. and funnily enough, it was everything i wanted growing up - and still is. yeah, i might be exhausted - but most times, i'm exhausted from playing and hugging and kissing and loving. yeah, there  are days when i feel like my head will explode, but oftentimes, it's the sparkling eyes and precious smiles that make my heart burst into pieces because i can't contain the ridiculous amount of love i have for each of them. swallowing up the bitter with the sweet is what being a mother is all about. 

the formally appointed "mother's day" holiday is really only good for a cellophane wrapped little debbie's oatmeal cream pie - disguised as breakfast in bed. because really, all the fun, crazy, and icky things of being a mother of four small children is still there waiting for me, day after day - and i'm so grateful it is.

****
today i am grateful for:

*sam's humor. he's quite the unconventional guy, and i love him for it.

*sam's help with the kids despite the stress of finals, papers, graduation, etc. thank you, sam.

*my children's thoughtful gifts - and i'm just grateful they decided to let me keep them. ;)

*dinner with friends.

*cherry limeade