Mother's Day Monsters

Since you already know we celebrate birthmonths around here, it will probably not surprise you that Mother's Day has turned into a long weekend. Thank goodness, too. Yesterday was like Mother's Day Dress Rehearsal. There were false starts and clouded emotions. It all started with the strawberry pie.Yes, although I'm smiling for the camera, trying to get over my inner brattiness, this pie made me grumpy. Seems impossible, doesn't it?

I guess it started Friday when I called Jon from the grocery store. "Could you pick up a lime?" he asked. "I want to make you a Mother's Day surprise." I bought the lime, but with a feeling of unease that I couldn't quite put my finger on. After getting Jon to admit he was making a strawberry pie, he accused me of not liking surprises. I tried that theory on. Was that really it? I think I like surprises, but maybe not.

Later in the evening, I figured it out. Just like last year, the thing I wanted most was time to myself. If Jon is making a pie, I am entertaining the children. I told Jon I had a great idea. "How about you make a strawberry pie for Father's Day next month? You're more of a pie person than me, anyway, plus you'll have time to yourself in the kitchen. What do you think?" Jon agreed, of course, and I was off kid duty, but I couldn't deny the lingering feeling that I was being a jerk for not allowing Jon to present me with something he really wanted to create.

Wouldn't you know it- that night I had a dream I was eating something delicious. A strawberry pie. First thing upon awakening, I told him I had changed my mind, and desperately wanted that pie. We kept our fingers out of the berries when he came in from the greenhouse, and by mid-afternoon, there it was.

I wish I could say I appreciated the pie with grace, but it wouldn't be true. "Um, did you follow the crust recipe?" I wondered. "Did you put powdered sugar in the whipped cream? I think I prefer strawberry shortcake, how about you?" How does this man manage to keep loving me? But he really does. Not only does his love never seem to falter, but that evening, as I agonized over my response to his pie efforts, he listed the reasons why he's glad I am the way I am. I am certainly blessed among women.

Besides the pie, there was another mishap, which involved me deciding 15 minutes before the library closed that I just had to go, with the kids, to get an audio book to listen to in the greenhouse. Jon said he'd load the kids up while I dug up my library card. I came out to find the kids buckled into their car seats. "Did you think I'd drive to the library?" I was incensed. So then there was wrestling the bike out of the garage, wrestling everyone into their helmets, wrestling them into their seats. Phew. You know where this is going, right? We got to the library at 6:02. I sighed and asked Zephyr if he wanted to go home, or to the park. He chose the park. I road there, unloaded Jubilee, and found that Zephyr had fallen asleep in the bike trailer. So I circled the neighborhood for a while, giving Jon time to finish his greenhouse project and me time to shake off the grumpy bugs that mysteriously clung. "It's a good thing today isn't really Mother's Day," Jon said, giving me a big hug when we got home.

I am pleased to report that today surpassed all expectations. Jon made a delicious breakfast of eggs with Potato and Asparagus Hash. Amazing. After breakfast, they presented me with a poem that thrills me to no end. If you're familiar with Sandra Boynton, you may have read the book Birthday Monsters, which was the inspiration the card Jon and the kids created:

It's 1 a.m.
You're still in dream
You hear a squawk
You hear a scream

The room in turmoil spins around
The Mother's Day monsters are in town!

Up all night
You can't rest
They make breakfast that’s the best
But then you're left with a huge mess!

They nurse
They poop
They eat your flowers
And all you want is to get a shower

Just when you think you'll go nuts
They dance around with naked butts

They hug
They kiss
They fall asleep
and the love you feel is deep.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY
From your Mother's Day Monsters

Then, just like in the book, they packed up and left. Jon gave instructions to do something I couldn't easily do when everyone else was home. I worked on a secret project, then climbed into the bathtub where I watched the movie For The Bible Tells Me So, which I highly recommend. Every time I wondered if I should be using my luxurious time for something else, I reminded myself that both the bath and the movie were things I couldn't do when the kids were here, so it was all perfectly in order.

The rest of the day passed in a relaxed rhythm of homemade pizza (peepa, as Jubi says), going out for ice cream ("What's he, 13?" Jon asked when Zephyr sat on a bench a few feet away from the rest of us), taking a family walk, and successfully biking to the library during operating hours (where we ran into Katya!). The kids simu-napped for an hour or two, so Jon and I got to have some time together. But perhaps my favorite time of all was hanging around on the couch together, no agenda, just talking and tickling and being.And it's not over. Although the semester ended last week, we haven't told Zephyr, and tomorrow, at the appointed hour, I'm going "to work." A smoothie and pedicure later, I'll come home, one happy mother.