Muh-ver's Day

I had a lovely Muh-ver's Day (just love how Adrienne subs 'v' for 'th' in the word mother). As the girls get older, it's really fun to see the things they make at school and special touches they add to the day. Jillian is especially good at this--I have said it before, but I think she'll make an awesome event planner someday because she is really, really into the details of celebrations.

I woke to my gifts being delivered to me in bed. Jillian asked me for a big box a few days prior, and had filled it with the gifts the girls had been working on. My surprise breakfast was a big bowl of Golden Grahams! The back story here is that one night at dinner we started talking about all the awesome and full-of-sugar cereals our girls didn't even know existed. We strolled down memory lane listing all our faves, and then Matt decided that it might be fun to sometime have a 'cereal Sunday' where we took turns picking out a fun cereal for our family to try. Jillian remembered this and absolutely insisted we start this tradition today, and start it with my favorite childhood cereal. The girls ate silently as they gobbled up the Golden Grahams. Plain Cheerios are just not nearly as fun!

I opened my box to find it had been carefully packed with tissue, er I mean toilet, paper.

Inside the box were several items....first, 2 small chalkboards to be hung in the mudroom for the girls to write notes to me. They started today by Adrienne drawing me an Elsa picture, and Jillian wrote me a mother's day wish.

Jillian made me a lovely picture describing all my best qualities, in her opinion: loving, pretty, fun, cool, helpful, great. I plan to remind her often that she said these things about me.

She also made me a special story book...

I love you because...."you take care of me. Because you read to me. Because you're fun"

My favorite thing about you is...."You are 'butiful'. You are nice to me"

Thank you for always..."Being there for me. Thank you for loving me"

Then Adrienne made me some pictures. And Jillian labeled them. One depicts "party time", the other "dance time"

Adrienne made me a lovely tissue paper flower craft at Bible study

And she also made me a hilarious card at school. Upon reading it I learned a lot of things about myself that I didn't even know!

My Mom's Name is: "Malia"
My Mom is: "20 years old" (Adrienne you are now my favorite!)
My mom weighs: "5 pounds"
My mom's favorite food is: "cauliflower" (this is funny because she must have been listening one night at dinner when I was telling Matt how much I have enjoyed cauliflower lately when roasting it whole)
My mom's favorite TV show is: "Ninja Warriors" (I've never seen the show! And pretty sure she hasn't either...)

My mom always says: "How was your day?" (I do)
My mom and I like to: "Go Shopping" (We do)
My mom is good at: "Exercising" (Yup)
I love my mom because: "I just do"

Jillian was VERY excited about the special gift she purchased for me at the school Mother's Day store. She knows I love jewelry, and she knows that giraffes are my favorite animal, so it was only natural for her to select this incredibly thoughtful necklace for me.

It took me awhile to find just the right thing to wear it with, but I think I succeeded. After an early morning trip to the nursery sans kids, I planted my front flower pots and then got ready for church. We hit the 11:00 service and I noticed that the woman sitting next to me was also sporting a special mother's day necklace (hers made out of beads).

After church we had reservations at Chester's Mother's Day Brunch.

Adrienne had a plate of sugar (muffins, pastries), followed by a plate of sugar (cake, banana cream pie, cheesecake) for dessert.

We went home and took a few obligatory mom/kid pics on the front porch before heading in for a movie for the girls, and a big fat nap for the grownups. Oh yes. That nap was fabulous.

After rest time, Jillian sweetly asked me if she could write "I love mom" on her white shirt with marker. Um, no....but I did let her make that declaration on a sticker she wore around the rest of the day.

We played games as a family (per Jillian's orchestration), then fed the kids PBJ and put them in bed without a bath. Matt and I ate a lovely no-cook dinner of cheese, crackers, fruit, and nuts as we watched a show before bed.

As I went up to check on the girls for my nightly ritual, I found them both worthy of a photo. Here, the resident Elsa clearly was concerned about freezing something so she wore some cozy socks on her hands (and some interesting layers of clothing)

And Jillian. Matt said he had a talk with the girls about going to bed without trouble tonight, that I would appreciate that more than anything on Mother's Day. He said he specifically told Jillian to take a couple books in bed with her to read and not to get out. I guess she really took him seriously.

Being the mother of these girls is my greatest joy, and my greatest challenge. It's a heavy responsibility, and it's easy to get stuck thinking that I have to do everything 'right' to be a great mom. I read a quote in a blog last week that really struck me--"Merit doesn't make a mother. God makes a mother".  Nothing I do is going to make me a better mom. God has already done that great work in me. I am so grateful He entrusted these children to me.