Happy Mother’s Day to all of my favorite
Moms!
It’s been a whirlwind blast of fun and work
today, and while spending time with my family and our friends was really great;
I have a special batch of memories now for my first time sharing Mother’s Day
with Michael’s Mom – and having him share parts of the day with mine – starting
with morning Tai Chi by the river.
That was a nice, quiet, and sweet start to
the day for us; though I guess that came after a fairly exciting and
entertaining Mother’s Day wake-up call for Mom and Dad that included having Mom
open her gifts from Dad, Ethan, Ehlana, and me in bed before we met up with
Michael and headed outside. Michael and
I had a joint gift for Mom that we gave her once he was there too; and he
earned bonus points from both Mom and me for giving her potted flowers too. The whirlwind of action kicked up immediately
after Tai Chi because I needed to hit the shower and get ready for church
before rushing over to Michael’s house to meet up with him again and have a
special Mother’s Day breakfast with his family.
Dad made a special breakfast for Mom, and I’m
sure it was great too; but Jacob went all out with his gourmet morning meal
today. Since that was also the only time
we had to actually celebrate Mother’s Day with Miranda; the hour and a half we
spent together before needing to clean up and head over to the church was
really awesome and special too. Miranda
got to open all of her gifts while we had breakfast because Rebecca and Michael
don’t seem to feel the need to wake their parents up with bed bounces, hugs,
and kisses like Ethan, Ehlana, and I do with ours. I could play it cool and pretend that I only
do that for my brother and sister; but I’d probably still be doing that anyway
even if they weren’t around!
That was all fun, and Miranda was as happy
as my Mom when we met up again with them at the church. We aren’t quite done with this round of rain,
and though it didn’t get in the way of Tai Chi this morning; we’d needed to
drive to the church instead of walking there in the light rain showers. Pastor John had a short service Mother’s Day
surprise for the women of his congregation, and that was entertaining for
everyone; but for some reason, it wasn’t taken quite the same way as Pastor
Martha’s Father’s Day version of the mini-sermon gift she’s given the men in
town every year for decades now.
I thought it was an awesome idea; and a
really nice new tradition that Pastor Lewis might wish he’d come up with first
to go along with the annual carnations and other special recognitions for our
favorite mothers.
Before I move on to the rest of the report,
let’s go off-topic for a moment and I’ll
give you the birthday fun news from Nora’s big trip to the city
yesterday. First up, while it isn’t
completely unheard of here in Witch Falls; Nora’s ‘big’ birthday gift of a Smartphone
was the top story there; since there really aren’t that many teens around here
under the age of sixteen who have a phone.
I know, that’s crazy to most teens just about anywhere else, but until
teens start driving around here; cell phones just aren’t that big of a deal –
not to mention that with WiFi available all around town, an iPod can keep you
connected with home just as easily as a phone and without the monthly charges.
Okay, I’ll stop there, since Nora is thrilled;
and my opinion on the need for phones at our age is definitely in the minority –
even if most of my classmates and friends will not have much luck convincing
their parents of that for at least another year or two. While getting her phone was at the top of her
birthday fun list; it sounds like Nora, Vanessa, and the other girls had a great
day too. They went shopping; had a
couple of fast food meals; and went to the movies after dinner. There was apparently some minor flirting with
some ‘hot, older city boys’ too; and Nora was almost as proud of the new messaging
contacts from two of those boys as she is about the phone.
Finally, while we’re not on the way to
being buddies anytime soon, Nora did really like the gift that Rowen and I
picked out for her; and took a moment to thank us on our way into Sunday school
class. I should mention that there was a
reason why Rowen and I didn’t do a joint gift for her with Michael and Tim, and
while I’m not sure whether that little detail made a difference with how Nora
feels about us; there wasn’t any teen drama today, and it might have been weird
for all of us if Tim had been in on getting a gift for his ex-girlfriend. Maybe we’ll see if that feels less awkward
next year; since we have mostly been doing joint birthday gifts now for the
rest of our friends – and they seem to appreciate getting one nicer gift
instead of four smaller presents.
Getting back to the Mother’s Day action, it
was still raining after church, but was clearing up; so we went ahead with our
barbeque and picnic at the park plans. I
went home with Mom, Dad, and the twins after saying goodbye to Michael and his
parents and sister at the church when they left for the Inn. Once we’d all gotten changed into play
clothes, it was time to rush around again as we put our picnic together and
loaded up the truck with our picnic gear, supplies, and some chairs and game
gear – like gloves, balls, bats, and Frisbees.
Ethan, Ehlana, and I walked over to the park once we were ready to go so
that Mom and Dad could stop in at Uncle Adam and Aunt Leanne’s house to pick up
them up, along with Zack and their contributions to the picnic. Mother’s Day picnics in the park aren’t
exactly becoming an annual event or anything; but there are still a lot of
families choosing to go there for picnics and play time, and while we had the
largest group; there were probably close to two hundred people there at the
busiest.
The Mothers were off-duty for anything
other than playing with their kids; so I was on work detail in the pavilion
with Rowen and some of the other teens while most of the fathers and
grandfathers were working grills or supervising the cooking. Setting out stacks of paper plates and
plastic utensils along with bowls and platters of salads, buns, and condiments
wasn’t hard to handle; and we still had time to play in between that work and
the post-picnic clean-up. There was so
much going on that I’d need a day to write about all of it, so let’s just lump
it all together and call it one of those really great play afternoons. I’ll also skip writing about how much time I
actually managed to spend with Mom on Mother’s Day because that’ll just have
the ‘Just Me and My Mom’ song running through my head again tonight – though I
was just as busy as she was today and we were both being pulled in different
directions by our family and friends.
Some more gifts were exchanged at lunchtime
too; since that was our first chance to do that with grandparents, aunts, and
other favorite mothers. Play time
included general playground action, some baseball and football, and what seemed
like everything else from trackball and Frisbee to volleyball and croquet. Tim had come with Rowen, and while his
parents had been doing lunch at his aunt and uncle’s house; they came over to
the park for a couple of hours in the afternoon – and were going to the same
buffet at the Inn that we went to for dinner.
Michael had a shorter-than-usual afternoon
break because they were running three buffets at the Inn today; but he spent
that time with Rowen, Tim, and me at the park.
I didn’t go back to the Inn with him when his break was over, but I did
join him there and help out after giving Dad a hand getting all of our gear
back to the house when it was time to head home again. I was at the Inn in time to help with getting
the second wave of food for the second buffet ready and out to the dining room;
and I stayed and played with Michael and Rebecca until the first wave of food
went out for the last buffet; when the three of us were allowed to go and have
dinner with my family. That was another
blast of fun, though we also only stayed in the dining room for three-quarters
of an hour before heading back to the kitchen to mostly help out with the major
clean-up that had really been ongoing all afternoon.
While Miranda had to work hard all
afternoon and evening, we all tried our best to help all of the Moms on duty
have fun too; so we were a pretty happy – and tired – group by the time
Michael, Rebecca, and I were set free to head home. Michael was tied enough that we only stayed
together for a little front porch cuddle time and a chat with Rebecca at their
house before they went inside for the night and I moved on to my place.
Mom, Dad, and the twins had been enjoying
another quiet evening, so I had another chat with them in the living room
before we were all ready to head up to bed.
After two big meals, we skipped the bedtime snack; took care of the
story in Ehlana’s room; and then I spent a few minutes each with Ethan and
Ehlana while tucking them in for the night before coming up to my room and
moving on to some Jacuzzi time that I really needed after a play afternoon and
a few hours of work in a hot kitchen.
I’m going to skip the study and work
report, since there isn’t much to write about with that anyway. I had a batch of email to catch up on
tonight, and the main fun there was from my favorite collegians. They’re busy with exams and studying; but
they’re also all getting as excited as I am that they’ll all be home by
sometime next weekend – depending on whether they’re leaving on Friday night,
Saturday, or Sunday – and whether they’re coming straight to Witch Falls or
going to other homes first.
Between now and then, things will seem
quieter at school with the Grade Twelve class gone on their trip – which is a
bigger deal when it means a quarter of the high school students aren’t
there. Our second week of baseball will
keep me busy for three nights, plus we’ll have Uncle Mark’s birthday to
celebrate on Wednesday – a first for him with us – and Aunt Grace. I’m also going to try and do more family
business work this week so that I can do less next week and help Mom more with
getting ready for the holiday weekend. That’s
one of the reasons why I’m just getting to this and it’s past three o’clock –
and why I’m pretty much ready to crash now.
I need something Mother’s Day-ish to end this report on, though, so let’s
go with a repeat YouTube link to my favorite song of the weekend – one that
Ethan and Ehlana kept singing to me off and on today with ‘special’ lyrics just
for Mom and me.
Once again, I hope all Moms had a really
happy, special day today!
Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the
Light!
