They started as a piece of toast, and a glass of milk. As I got older they went up to cereal and toast, oat meal and toast (apparently I had a thing with toast, ok)? As I got older I was able to make things like scrambled eggs and bacon (I hate cooking bacon by the way. I will eat the heck out of it given the chance but I hate cooking it which explain why we rarely eat it at my house now!)
My Mother always appreciated every little burnt piece of black toast or dry oat meal I brought her. Even when I would make her coffee that was either far too strong, or too weak (I'm still not very good at making coffee and I'm 29 now, just the whole science of the 'perfect cup' eludes me!)
I remember when I was younger my mother would give me about $10 and we'd go to the store with my Grandma and I'd walk around with my Grandma and pick something out with my Grandma for my Mother for Mother's Day. I'd take it home and wrap it up and present it to her with my carefully craft breakfast for my Mother.
I remember making her little scribbly home made cards and those little flowers we planted at school as a "science project" and then brought home to our moms as a Mother's day gift (it was ALWAYS marigolds!)
Now that I'm a mom....I get those same wonderful experiences. Minus the breakfast in bed part...my kids haven't gotten that creative yet and honestly...having witnessed my kids helping in the kitchen I'm VERY glad they haven't decided to try their hand at making me breakfast in bed. They'd probably just chuck a granola bar or pop tart at my head and call it good, then they would probably end up eating my pop tart or granola bar.
I still get the awesome scribbly Mother's Day cards! I love those, they make my heart smile. My FAVORITE bouquet of flowers, dandelions. I don't care what ANYONE else says, dandelions are the best flowers from children ever. They are given with such love, and children don't see them as "weeds" like adults do. They see these plants as beautiful flowers that mom will LOVE. They pick these precious yellow puffs with all the love in the world. They give these soft yellow flowers with their whole heart. Smudgy dirty hands, sticky faces, and eyes that just SHINE with love, they present you with as many dandelions as they can fit in their hands. Dandelions to me, represent so much. They grow close together, they grow fast in the blink of an eye. As they age they send out their children (the seeds) to spread out and go out into the world and start their own families. If you stop and think about it...they represent parenting so well. They are colorful, hardy plants. They can grow anywhere under the toughest situations and never give up. They are SURVIVORS.
I never turn down a dandelion or clover given to me by a small child. I hate it when I see parents just toss the plant to the grown and say something like "ew, don't give me that, it's a weed we don't pick weeds, we kill them" That poor kid. The look on their face. They deflate YES, I have heard parents say this to their children more often than you might think! Unless your kid is bring you a bouquet of poison ivy or something dangerous....don't throw it away like it's trash. Those flowers mean a lot to them, they are presenting you not with just "flowers" they are presenting you with their love.
I will happily set up a million tiny vases around my dining room full of fast wilting dandelions, forever and ever until my children out grow bringing me dandelions.
I love sitting in my back yard with the kids and picking dandelion puffs and making wishes with my kids as we blow the puff of seeds into the wind, off into their new start, who knows where they will land and start growing. Grow plants grow.
So if you see my lawn over run with dandelions, it's ok. I don't need a gardener. My yard is filled with love. There will come a time and place that I might consider removing the dandelions from my yard, but probably not. They will always bring a smile to my face and make me think of happiness. I will always fondly look at dandelions and remember spring and summer days spent with my children or of my own child hood. Time spent running and playing, running bare foot, BBQ's, swimming, gardening, swinging on the swing set, playing baseball or soccer, and so many other fond memories from my childhood, as well as my children's. They are just cheery little poofs of happiness and sunshine!
So my kids didn't pick me any dandelions for Mother's day, they DID bring home those awesome little decorated flower pots, complete with their very own Marigolds happily planted inside. My sons Marigolds are already nearly ready to bloom! My daughter who brought home several of them, still have a lot of growing to do. I look forward to watching their gorgeous plants grow and blossom, just like I look forward to watching my children grow and blossom.
My husband slept in this morning, which is fine as the kids and I went to Church this morning. When we got home from Church he made us pancakes for brunch and they were delicious! For supper my husband made home made lasagna and garlic. I'm lucky to have a guy who is handy in the kitchen!
He didn't used to be, I literally taught him everything he knows about being in the kitchen. When we started dating when we were 17, he could barely make a bowl of Ramen noodles in the microwave! I'm happy to say that now at the age of 29 my husband is one heck of a cook! If you tell him what you want, he'll cook it for you. If he doesn't know how, he'll find out how. We love cooking in the kitchen together.
He usually cooks at least one meal a day, some times not as often, but on average he does usually cook at least one meal a day. Which is so nice and I'm going to miss it now that he is back to work. He misses 2 meals a day because he's working, and breakfast he's usually sleeping through because of work. Though the other morning he worked until midnight, got to sleep at 1, and got up at 8 in the morning and made home made hash browns, scrambled eggs and toast for the kids and I for breakfast. I was surprised and thankful. It's a huge help when you have a husband who helps you in the kitchen.
The kids allowed Mommy to rest on the couch today. There wasn't any napping (sadly, I could have REALLY used a nap too!) They did take the time to bring me their favorite blankets and cover me up and make sure I had a pillow and even brought me a stuffed animal to cuddle, and gave me hugs and kisses and snuggles. How sweet is that?
My resting time was cut short though when I saw the weather channel report. My sister in laws town in Iowa was looking like it was about to be completely slammed by tornadoes. So of course my panic button ensued and I called her up on her phone. They don't have TV and don't really pay much attention to the weather. Thankfully she did have a text alert so she had just gotten a text alert literally a second before I called. Right as we started talking the tornado sirens in her town went off. Scary stuff. Then the phone call started experiencing interference and I could hardly understand her due to static. It was a bit intense, but they are all ok. My niece and her mom and her boyfriend are all good and safe. So is my cousin and her fiancé and their son that live in the same town. My stepdad also doesn't live too far from there and he is fine as well. Whew! Darn storms!
I'd like to say the storms are over, but no they aren't.
More storms are moving through Iowa where my husband and I have plenty of friends and family that live. So I send prayers out to them!
I guess we're supposed to have some more storms through our neck of the woods too, but haven't really heard a whole lot about that honestly though so not really expecting anything major. We had some storms last night but we missed every warning which is a good thing because every county around us had enough warnings!! How we didn't get any is a mystery to me. I guess our county was just "lucky".
My thoughts are with the places in Missouri that did experience tornadoes last night. Shelbina, Orrick, Marshall, and Macon.
So other than the storms in areas where I have family and friends, it's been a lovely day. Had a good Mother's day, spent time with my kids and husband what could be better? I didn't need or want anything fancy for Mother's day.
We also had a great Easter too. The kids had an enjoyable time at the Egg hunt, my niece had a good time visiting us and went home the first of May. It was good to see her but I'm glad my kids aren't toddlers anymore! I don't miss that age! HA!
School will be over soon, which means my daughter is THAT much closer to being in first grade and my sons are THAT much closer to being in kindergarten!! AH! Doesn't seem possible.
I'll be going with my daughter on her field trip later this week. She has her kindergarten celebration (like a graduation but for some reason they aren't allowed to use the term "graduation")
At her class assembly the other day she received an award for always having a "positive attitude", so proud of her! She's always been a very positive child and a very good go getter!
My sons had their preschool graduation the other day, and there were plenty of tears from this mama! How I kept them hid I don't know!!! I was definitely hiding behind my camera and sneaking a tear swipe so no one would notice. My handsome boys, I just can't believe they are 5 years old already and heading to kindergarten.
They had a wonderful 5th birthday party. Although, we weren't sure if they were even going to HAVE a party! We were under a bad storm warning that day and my daughters Girl Scout event almost got cut a little short because of the incoming weather but thankfully we sped things up and everyone got out of there in plenty of time. Then the boys were getting ready to have their party and we weren't really sure if the storm was going to let up or not! Thankfully the storm DID let up and they still had plenty of guests and they had a lot of fun. We appreciated everyone who braved the weather to come help my sons celebrate their birthday. Even if it would have just been our little family there and no one else, it still would have been an awesome birthday. Storm, or no storm!
So April ended on a good note, and May has started on a good note (other than Mother Nature just being a royal rip lately!) What is up with the weather? I mean yeh I know it's storm season but sheesh!
The husband's college is winding down for the semester, he started back to work and is staying super busy and ready for summer.
We're planning our first ever family camping trip (I'm a little nervous for that!! There will be some swimming, fishing, hiking, and of course actual camping during this trip!) My kids have never done any kind of camping other than setting up their pup tent outside in the back yard that they've never slept in over night.
We have a few other trips we'd like to do this summer, but I don't know if we'll be able to squeeze all of those in. Babysitting money I was hoping to have and save up for our summer trips kind of was yanked out from under me by a person deciding not to pay me anything before they up and moved town, so that REALLY put a hurting in my summer savings account! There went all of our fun money. How we planned to do any kind of mini family vacation this summer. We were wanting to take the kids to Lego Land in Kansas City this summer, looks like that trip won't be happening. We wanted to check out the Missouri State Fair, that won't be happening either. We were hoping to hit up the St. Louis Zoo (and botanical garden and go see the Arch) this summer, as well as check out the Des Moines Zoo when we went up to Des Moines for a family reunion this summer. Plus helping to cover the cost of sending my dog to the doggy sitters while we're gone. Doesn't look like ANY of that will be happening this summer. The woes of babysitting for people who decide they don't need to pay you for your months of service. Of keeping their kids alive after school and on the weekends, feeding them, helping them with their home work and treating them like they are part of the family. Parents, are the main reason I hate babysitting. It isn't the kids, they are awesome I love working with kids, but I don't so much like working with the parents who don't even attempt to pay me and I have to poke and prod to get money out of them. *sigh* I TRY not to be bitter over it, but I kind of am. I was excited to take this on because I had a plan for that money saving it up for our summer fun, something we don't generally EVER get to do. We usually spend every summer at home, bored. Doing nothing other than the public pool and the public park. That gets boring after several years.
Last year we took our first REAL family vacation, thanks to my mother in law who paid for it all. We drove 10 hours (it would have been less if we didn't have 4 kids under 6 at the time! That is a lot of potty breaks and my mother in law needed to stop a lot too). We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha Nebraska. It was AMAAAAAZING! Coolest zoo ever. I LOVED the dinosaur section with the robotic dino's. I think I was more excited about it then the kids were. I was literally nearly in tears (yeh I know I cry easy, I can't help it, some things just make me so happy it's crazy). I'm a bit of a dino nerd/animal nerd. So the dino exhibit, and the JUNGLE DOME. Oh my gosh. I could have LIVED THERE! There were so many sections I just loved. I'm so glad my kids got to experience that zoo. We tried to ditch my husband in the Gorilla house with his family members, but he didn't find that too funny. Haha.
I know we will be hitting up the lake near us though. That's where we will be camping this year too probably. Will be picking up a couple of fishing licenses and doing some fishing with the kiddos. I'm not the worlds greatest at fishing. The fish literally swim circles around my hook and laugh at me. Plus I do NOT have the patience to catch cat fish, nor am I quiet enough. My family always hated taking me fishing with them, hahahahaha!
So one way or another, we'll have a fun summer. The kid are playing rag ball this summer so that will take up a lot of time, and they are going to the extended school year so that's another thing to keep them busy. We usually go back home for a week to visit my Mother for the 4th of July, but we didn't do that last year and we probably won't this year either. She moved to another town (it's closer to us) but it isn't the SAME as going back to the area that is more of my home town where I can easily see and visit with people I miss. So we'll probably just stay home for the 4th like we did last year.
For now though, I will just revel in the fact that I had a fantastic Mother's day with my children and husband. I'll let the rest of it sort it's self out later. Things will work out.
It is now time for me to go to bed!
Mae
