Privileged

Mother's Day this year began on Wednesday.  Xandra came bounding out of Sparks with this:

 

a plate of beautifully made, chocolate-dipped strawberries.  They made the fondant flowers the week before and dipped the strawberries that Wednesday.  After surprising me with the wonderful gift, she informed me that I could only have two of the strawberries.  The other two were for her.  Hmmmm.  Since we knew they wouldn't save until Sunday, her and I enjoyed them together before bed.

On Sunday morning my husband crept from bed and gathered the kids to make a pancake breakfast.

I got up, showered, dressed and then enjoyed the surprise of breakfast in bed with my five kids.  They ate, too.

After church we ventured home and baked up some homemade pizzas I had stashed in the freezer the day before.  Then we headed to a nearby park, just after stopping to use a coupon for a free fountain pop at a nearby gas station, to feast

and play.

After our adventure at the park we headed to Cherry Berry.  I had four coupons for three free ounces of frozen yogurt.  We used our coupons, split the 12 ounces of yogurt between the six of us (none for Tikvah, yet) and neglected to take any pictures.

I also neglected pictures of two other significant items:

1.  The state of my bed after having five children eat pancakes and drink milk in it.  Messy might be an understatement.  It was worth stripping the bed and washing the sheets to get to have breakfast like that with them.

2. The kids worked all week on coloring rocks for me.  They used many of the small landscaping rocks from around our house and kept it a secret.  Each child proudly trooped into my bedroom carrying a heavy bag of chalk covered rocks after breakfast.  Since we were moving soon and I wanted to keep the rocks for a future garden, the next day I dumped all the rocks in a box, taped it shut and labeled it, "BOX OF ROCKS," and it was promptly taken to the garage to await being loaded on the moving truck.  It greatly amuses me that we moved and are now storing a box of rocks.

One last picture I DO have is a present that Joe and the kids worked on together.

I mentioned to Joe that I would like to have this quotation in a manner where I could display it.  It is at the crux of what God has been teaching me in this season of our lives and I want to remember it, meditate on it, see it, remind myself of it, so that I might choose joy and gratitude instead of what comes much more naturally to me, grumbling.  This is what they created and it's hanging in my room, daily giving me cause to utter thanks for God's blessings, even ones like dirty laundry and piles of dishes.

To date, this is my favorite Mother's Day.  It's hard to explain why.  There was nothing flashy or extravagant.  In fact, our goals were to just be together and not to spend any money.  Somehow, that helped make the day very special.  It was the kind of day where you go to bed grateful and aware of what a privilege it is to be a mom and wife.