The Real MVP of Mother’s Day

In a house-of-littles…

…you are not going to wake up to breakfast in bed that’s been lovingly prepared by doting children.  And you are kinda glad of the fact because it takes a long. time. before they can clean up your kitchen after themselves as well as you can. Maybe never, right Mom? 😉

You won’t receive thoughtfully penned words.  Unless they are prompted by someone else.

A bouquet from a florist won’t be given by your four-year-old.  But you might get some dandelions that droop from a kitchen cup and water spilled on the carpet as he carries it to you.

They probably won’t give you a back rub.  Unless you count bending to pick something up off the floor which somehow always signals to the boys that it’s time to pounce on mommy’s back. 

Maybe, you will feed the three-month-old who spits up all over your dress amid his happy coos.  Make eggs for the child who only. wants. eggs.  Make eggs for the other two who already had cereal but are certain that they also want eggs.  Wrestle children into their Sunday-best when they would rather not be dressed.  Take less than 10 minutes to splash water on your face, do your hair, and get dressed for the day.  Make sure the diaper bag has the usual supplies as well as an extra set of clothes for the toilet-trained-toddler, just in case.  Wipe the kitchen table and counters off and coax afore-mentioned boys to eat their now-cold-eggs.

Just a normal start to a normal morning.

While I know that my boys love me, they just are not at the stage where communicating their deep love for me is very high on their priority list.

But.  Their Daddy reminded them about Mother’s Day after they woke; and they came to me with hugs and shining eyes.  The shining eyes were partially because they wanted to tell me that they loved me but more because they wanted to tell me that they had a secret.  They couldn’t tell me; but they were going to make a secret with Daddy during quiet-time today.  And they could. not. wait.

And throughout the rest of the morning, I heard little bits and pieces in hushed tones about the surprise that was awaiting.

Planning, sawing, painting, and writing.  It was precious because the ones most precious to me made it and gave it.  

Their enthusiasm was superior to any ribbons or wrapping paper.

We spontaneously invited my in-laws and sister-in-law and her family over for a meal that evening.  It was Kevin who did the majority of the work in the kitchen for a meal of taco salad and fresh-cranked ice cream. Ice cream is high on the priority list for a Martin meal, and his mom has fond memories of skimming the cream from the cow’s milk all week to enjoy a batch of hand-cranked ice cream over the weekend.

This Mother’s Day, my children hand-made me a wooden puzzle that I will keep for years.

And I served a delicious meal to my Mother-in-law.

It might look like I have it all together.