Mother's Day Memories

My very first Mother's Day, I was a new mother of just 2 weeks. I was nursing and that meant that Terry's standard special occasion gift of chocolates was out. Apparently eating chocolate was a bad thing to do when your a nursing mom, or so the nurses told us. Therefore, Terry had to really think of something to get for me.

He was not use to gift giving, and although he rarely forgot an occasion, his idea of gifts were far reaching on my scale of appropriate gifts. Some of his best were a hamster and cage for Xmas, while we were dating. And the next Christmas what did he get me... another one! I grew to love those little guys but I shocked and a bit afraid at first. I got a beautiful pair of pearl earrings from Terry another Xmas.. and what did he get me the very next Xmas... the exact same pair! Too funny... another year.. a watch that crowed like a rooster when the alarm went off...

Anyway, back to Mother's Day. My first Mother's Day I came downstairs, high on being a new mother. I was sort of expecting flowers (and hoping for chocolate..) but there was nothing on the coffee table. Nor in the kitchen. umm.... I wasn't totally surprised to find nothing, because this was all new and would take a year for him to figure out. I went about my business and after a little bit, I walked past our huge fishtank, and there ...on the tank was a card with "to Mommy" on it. I was thrilled to at least get a card. It had a cute little poem which I tucked away in Stephanie's baby book, signed from Stephanie and "Daddy" (still a new term in our language). When Terry came down the stairs, I thanked him for the card and he asked me if I liked the gift... um... I didn't see anything so I didn't really answer except with a puzzled look on my face. He pointed to the fish tank... and what was in there but a big beautiful fat "chocolate" goldfish. Not real chocolate.. a real goldfish... just cocoa brown. It was beautiful and warmed my heart too... sounds weird, I know, but that took a lot of thought... and it was just so cute an idea. I was thrilled! He even stuck with his "chocolate" theme!

Mother's days came & went and with them came measuring cups, pajamas, plants, school crafts, church crafts and flowers. But my best best best Mothers' Memories are those Mother's Day mornings when the kids were between the age of 4 and 13.. when Terry would get up with them. He would be groggy and lethargic... He would stumble into the kitchen, make coffee and get the kids working on "the menu". I, being the early riser, would "painfully" lay in bed and listen to the circus of whispering, dishes clanging and grumbling! After a bit, the girls would enter my room with a menu all written out (in different degrees of legibility) and I had so many choices it would take your breath away. I believe "Cora's" may have got their menu ideas from my kids Mother's day Breakfast Menu. Of course, being the intuitive mother that I was, I would skip past the the fancy fruit choices, the cereal menu, the pancakes/waffles/and pop tart section and go right to the scrambled egg and toast section. Lets not make this too complicated.

Off they would go to work on my breakfast requests. After what seemed like a half an hour.. they would all arrive into my bed with the tray filled to the top with at least 8 scrambled eggs, and as many toast, with bacon and juice and a flower. Everyone would pile onto my bed including Taffy the dog, two to three cats, the kids and Terry. With just one fork, we, the entire family would eat all the food while I spent 15 minutes telling them how great it all was. Even Taffy joined in, getting most of the crusts from the kids and bits of egg and bacon! I kept a few menus from those days in the baby books but the memories are so much better! Even Mollie has shared a few Mother's day breakfast feasts.

This Mothers' Day would be my first without kids. I really didn't mind, as I talk to my kids almost every day in one form of communication or another... phone, email, blogs, msn...

I made plans to work in the yard, and first thing this morning before church, I decided to take an hour and clean out my linen closet. geesh, I hadn't done that in a while.. what a mess... it took way more than the hour I had set aside, so I left for church, leaving heaps of bedsheets, bedspreads, curtains and towels in the hallway, on my bed and on the bathroom counter (sorting method).

When I got back from a very successful Mother's Day craft session at Church, I rounded the corner in the car and there was Michelle, sitting on the doorstep with Mollie! What a nice surprise... so fun. I wish Stephanie lived closer. I missed her tons today, for some reason!

What a great surprise and a fun day to spend chatting about gardens, computers and weddings. Stephanie (via phone) got me geared up for twittering, and Michelle set up an account for me.. so away I go. Twittering is a quickie update, sort of like Facebook but not quite. You can check out my twitter over on the menu to the right!

Michelle has started a new blog... and Stephanie has started a new blog account, but she hasn't started to blog yet.. but its coming.. she is waiting for acceptance to the JET program, before she starts her new blog!

So, that was my Mother's Day. I hope yours was just as memory making!