Mother's Day reflections

Mother's Day 2007: The kids had been home for 3 weeks. Loud tantrums still abounded. Bedtime each night was a battle. Peter had been gone for 10 days. I was exhausted. We picked him up at the Newark airport mid-afternoon on Saturday. There was no way we were heading out to church Sunday morning. Peter's goal for the day was to do everything and keep the kids out of the way all day so I could have a real break. By mid-morning I had come down with Hep A, Garty's unexpected Mother's Day gift to me. Peter got his wish. I didn't do anything that day. Or the next day. Or for quite a while after that. He didn't even have to figure out what to feed me. Mother's Day 2008: When I went in the kids' room to get them up, Joshua and Patience wished me a happy Mother's Day. Joshua immediately wanted to go get the gift he made at school and had been hiding all weekend. While everyone else ate baked oatmeal for breakfast, I snuck a leftover piece of peanut butter cheesecake from our dinner party on Friday. We had a nice time at church. While Garty napped, the rest of the gang went to Bertucci's to pick up 2 orders of Chicken Parm to split and lots of delicious rolls. After dinner we all had quiet time in our rooms. My quiet time was extended an extra hour, so I had a wonderful nap. When we were all awake again, we hiked up the road to the creek. I love sitting by the water under the trees. Everyone threw rocks and sticks in the water until it was getting dark and time to head home. We sat around the table eating pistachios, pretzels, and strawberries with fresh whipped cream. After Peter put the kids to bed with no assistance from me, we watched Charlie Wilson's War (picked up free from Redbox). Oh, and we polished off the peanut butter cup cheesecake at intermission. My night ended with a massage from my dear husband. Truly a happy Mother's Day.