Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day weekend started off kind of tense.  Maggie had been home sick 3 days last week, and Grace for one.  The house reminded me of the reception area at my old office when I was an accountant.  It was so messy one year during tax season, that clients kept asking us if we were moving.  We eventually just started saying yes.

I clench, and I yell, and I cry when the house is in such a state of chaos.  All I wanted for Mother’s Day was a clean and tidy house.  Well, I say “all I want..” all casually as if that’s like saying “all I want is a hug from each of you” when really it’s as daunting a task as asking for world peace.

I wasn’t expecting perfection.  Just some help, and a tidy main floor.  But with the state the house was in, combined with a busy weekend, I felt like there was no hope of achieving this in time for Sunday.

I may have (you can’t prove anything) pitched a ragey fit on Saturday morning.

We headed off to dance class for Maggie and Molly – the minivan mostly powered by the steam coming out of every opening in my head.  Our plan was to leave directly from there to drive to the other side of Toronto to have dinner with Nerdguy’s family.  But on the way to dance, Grace began to not feel well.  I won’t go into details because she would be mortified, but I was pretty sure she was sick.  We dashed to Target for some gravol, tylenol, and stretchy pants.  She made me carry the Dora the Explorer barf bucket around the store.  Several people looked at me like they thought I was late for the egg hunt.

Nerdguy dropped the twins and I back home.  I was sad to miss dinner, but glad to tackle some laundry and work on cleaning up the house a bit.  My awesome Mother In Law sent me a box of chocolates and a card for Mother’s Day.  Isn’t that sweet?  We gave her a framed photo from our trip to Hilton Head Island in 2011, a Maeve Binchy book, and a cute birdcage candle holder.  Molly gave her a painting that she did of a cardinal.

I was happy that Nerdguy and Molly got back at a decent hour.  Fully wired from 2 XL coffees, Nerdguy set to work helping me clean the house up.  THings were looking up.

Sunday morning I slept in a little bit, and was treated to a delicious breakfast in bed that Nerdguy and the girls made.  Molly and Grace even learned how to make coffee, which is a skill that we capitalised on for the rest of the weekend.  We all worked on getting the rest of the main floor cleaned up, and I felt so much better.  The girls gave me some beautiful gifts, and Nerdguy bought me flowers.  They really did spoil me.  Molly painted a really pretty tulip painting for me, Grace bought me a rose scented bath bomb that she bought while we were at the school fair.  It was really cute watching her run off to buy it, and be all secretive.  Maggie painted a flower pot, planted with a pretty fuschia flower – I have to find out what kind that is.  Miraculously I have not killed it yet!

Molly painted pictures that she knows her grandmothers like – a pear for Grandma, and a cardinal for Nana.  The lilypad is for herself.

Then my mom came over for dinner and Nerdguy barbequed steak and potatoes.  So good!  Key Lime pie for dessert was the perfect finishing touch.  I love key lime pie.  I think it makes me feel like I’m back in Florida since my parents and I looked forward to having it there every year. My mom gave me 2 pieces of her jewelry, and the jewelry case that I remember so well from my childhood.

All in all it was a good Mother’s Day, and I feel really blessed to have such a wonderful family.

I hope you had a lovely Mother’s Day!