I Am a Lucky Mom!!

Mother's Day can be really hard for some women. For some, it can be a reminder of unfulfilled hopes.  Many years ago on Mother's Day, I had to take a crying baby out of sacrament meeting, and one of my friends in the ward who had teenagers (who were making painful choices in their lives) was out in the foyer crying.  She said she hated Mother's Day and is always glad when it's over.  I guess, during some trying years, I've had similar feelings. But I am very grateful that my children have brought me "joy as exceeding as was my pain" (Alma 36:20). Still, I am mindful that some women have not been able to have children, or their children have brought them sorrow, or their sadness may relate to their own mothers.

I tell my kids all the time how lucky I am. Maybe all moms feel like this, but I have tingly moments almost every day. Yes, those moments are intermingled with frustration and worry, and I wish some things were different, but I feel lucky nonetheless. I realize it's all been good learning.

On Friday I attended Jayce's Mother's Day program at school. I'm telling you, this sweet program is mom payment...it's just so wonderful!

After the singing program, we went back into the classroom to have treats.

Mother's Day really started for me on Saturday when I got to run on the beach. Allison Chen and I ran a five mile out and back run from Torrey Pines to the Del Mar racetrack. It is my new favorite thing to do. At low tide, the sand is hard packed, flat and easy to run on. My knees don't hurt afterward either. And I never am more grateful to live in such a beautiful place than when I'm running early in the morning on the beach. (Not to be confused with the experience of taking the kids to the beach in the summer with a million other people there :).)

After the beach run, I came home and cleaned bathrooms and vacuumed. Whew. It's not like it was exciting while I was cleaning, it wasn't. But it sure feels nice to have it clean. You know? Then, we decided to use up our last two Disneyland passes by having Mark take Jayce up there for the afternoon and evening. It was super crowded because Disneyland was closing at 5:00 due to the world premiere of the new Pirates movie. They still had fun, though! They spent most of the day at California Adventure.

So, we were left at home. Derek went up to Vista for his baseball game, Cody had homework, and I went to get a pedicure and out to eat with Sandi. Way fun!! In the evening I really wanted to watch a movie because I rarely do anymore. Cody didn't want to watch my movie because he had a bang-em-up-shoot-em-up one he wanted to watch with Derek. So, it was Pride and Prejudice upstairs by myself. I enjoyed it, even though I've watched it 20 times or so, but who's counting?

On Sunday, Mark was up, on the job, fixing breakfast. I decided to come down and help because he needed to get to church by 10:00. The boys got up and Derek cooked the pancakes. Church was wonderful, we had some great speakers. And after church, I took a little nap while Mark and the boys fixed salmon, pasta, green beans, salad and strawberry shortcake! I felt very spoiled! Caitlin's card came in the form of a sweet blogpost (click here if you want to read it :)) . And Jayce made some special things:

My favorite:

 "My Mom is special because she lets me watch really scary movies." 

(I'm especially glad he shared this with his teacher.)

According to Jayce, I'm 43 years old (it's okay if he makes me younger),

I like to rest,

I have blue eyes,

my birthday is August 6th,

I was born in California,

my favorite food is corn (or cow),

I help him sleep in his bed,

I'm best at cleaning.

I never heard from Dallin, I don't know where he is and I haven't heard from him in a while. Sigh.

I'll end with my beautiful Mother's Day flowers. Earlier in our marriage I told Mark not to bother with flowers because they seemed so impractical (I don't know why I ever said that, because I've never been super practical.) But, I really just love fresh flowers. We have a lot more growing in our yard now and I love them. I periodically just get some because they're beautiful. Mark would have gotten them, but we chose for him to spend the day with Jayce rather than getting stuff for me. And I was fine with that.

At the end of the long Sunday for him, he said the sweetest thing. He said, "I really wish I could've done more for you today. I wish I could give you a Mother's Day week. One day doesn't seem like enough." Yes, I am a lucky mom, indeed.