A Different View

Big Tree, 2008, Oil on Panel, 14x18

Mother's Day passed us by without much of any celebration, which actually makes me very happy. I don't go for all of the mushy stuff, especially when it's gradually turning into a highly commercialized, totally sappy "holiday".

But my kids still fall for the holiday aspect of it and so I play along. My youngest daughter made my bed for me and was really sweet and helpful all day. My other daughter had a hysterical fit (which made the day blissfully normal) and my son apologized to me for egging her on. Double blissful. Doug is out of town with our oldest son and that (heaven help me for saying this) made it a very peaceful day. Love him, but the occasional break is nice too.

Doug was probably the one who was the most disappointed in this year's Mother's Day and the fact that we were apart. He has always been good about planning things and giving some sort of lovely gift. I assured him that I was fine with it being low key and in fact prefer it.

Well ok, I won't complain if he brings me a little bauble back from his trip. Heh.

PS. I guess I'll explain my lack of interest in Mother's Day, and Father's Day for that matter. Pretending things are great and sending off a ridiculously flowery card to a "difficult" parent was always tough for me, some of you may understand that. My mother was the difficult one (and she expected a lot when it came to gifts and sentiments) and my father wasn't involved in my childhood at all.

My kids show their love and respect for me every day (almost:)) and that means so much more to me than getting recognition on Mother's Day ever will.

My Kids Are Amazing

Deep Dark Barn, 2007, Oil on Panel, 12x16

A very relaxed Mother's Day on Sunday was the perfect antidote to our schedule on Saturday, which involved the scheduling precision of a military maneuver. I won't go into the details, but I will say that it involved waking up at 5:30, driving into town five times between the two of us, play dates, two soccer games and a lot of hanging around town in order to not add yet another drive home. I did go to the opening day of the local farmer's market though and bought some beautiful herb plants to add to my garden, so that was a good score.

I don't usually go for the sappy aspects of Mother's Day and those sorts of things, but my kids are so sincere about it and that gets me in the heart every time. Yesterday they got up early and made a beautiful breakfast for me complete with a poem, a letter of appreciation for all of the laundry I do and for the things I buy that they don't really need, an egg cup with a little rooster on it (I now seem to get chicken related doo dads at every gift giving opportunity) and an old tomato can with an amazingly bad illustration of a tomato on one side and a politically incorrect image of a Native American with full headdress on the other side. We then drove up to Utica to do some summer clothes shopping and they proceeded to act like complete and total angels. No fighting, no pouting, no begging. They held the doors open, pushed the cart (I walked around like a princess) and carried the bags to the car. It was heavenly and today I am basking in the glow of how amazing my kids are.

Hmmm. Sounds a bit sappy, huh?