Mother's Day

If you know me well, you know I'm not a very formal person. Not very into pomp and ceremony, and certainly not awkward ones. So about 10  years ago, when Marriner came home from church one day and said he didn't think I'd mind if he had a little meeting before church on Mother's day, he got a really big surprise at my reaction. The poor guy was shut down in an instant and sent back into the church to reschedule his meeting. (That last part might not be accurate...but the sentiment is.)

My basic feeling about Mother's day is that I make sacrifices for everyone else's causes 364 days of the year, and Mother's day is the day I don't. No, I'm not getting the kids ready for church myself. No, I'm not making my own breakfast. No, I'm not going to say, "Oh, it's ok, I don't mind." Just no. The only thing you need to worry about that day is your mother and the mother of your children. I think this is a good policy to have. Not only does it help children and husbands have the experiences that help them not take their mothers for granted, it helps free up everyone else the husband might have spent time with that day to go be with their mothers and wives.

I'm really glad I put my foot down so many years ago. It really paid off this year, when Marriner didn't even ask if he could have a meeting before church. Nor did he ask if I could bathe the babies while he sent a few urgent texts.

Did I enjoy my one week out of every 52 of not getting everyone out the door all by myself? Oh, you bet I did. I enjoyed every second of the entire day, in fact. Husbands are great. I'd rather forgotten how great they really are.

Really, the whole day was one never to forget. It started a few weeks ago, when I got so mad at our can opener, which was not-so-slowly deteriorating in performance. I said, "Kids, at some point, your dad is going to ask what you should get me for Mother's day, and you're going to tell him I want a really nice can opener." Which was absolutely true. The kids did their duty, but Marriner couldn't get over the lameness of giving Mom a can opener for Mother's day. Aha! Theme party to the rescue!

For breakfast, they served canned corned beef hash with toast. For lunch, canned tuna melt sandwiches. For dinner, canned ravioli, canned fruit salad and canned green bean almondine. They threw in canned apple juice at the last minute (even though it didn't need a can opener to open it...there was some discussion on whether it qualified for inclusion. It won on sweetness). The can opener was a cool left-handed one. Alas, it didn't actually open the cans. We learned this after throwing out the old one. I think the blade was a little too short to puncture the can. Anyway, they ended up pulling out the leatherman and opening the cans "the manly way." For dessert, they served canned Snickers. Because Mom likes Snickers, but they had to make it fit in the theme :) They'd cut the bottom off a can, made a (shockingly realistic) Snickers label and glued the bottom back on after inserting the Snickers bar. They glued it with shoe goo, which did a great job on the can. But then came the only point where the day wasn't quite perfect: when I went to eat the Snickers, it tasted like chocolate shoe goo. It was quite sad. So now you know - whatever comes out of shoe goo is NOT appropriate for food. But we also made apple pie milkshakes with canned sweetened condensed milk, and thoroughly enjoyed that! The theme just made the whole day fun and silly, and it was one of the best Mothers days ever.

At church, they gave us all a cool sunflower after Sacrament meeting, which was quite lovely. Then one of the brethren came up to the Branch Pres and said, "You know, traditionally, the men will take Primary on Mother's day so the sisters can have a day off..." Too bad nobody mentioned that a week earlier, but hey. So after some consulting, the Primary decided to pass the kids off. It was fun to go to RS. My ASL would improve a lot faster if I went to classes with adults every week :) But I laughed while I heard the kids singing across the hall. I'd planned a singing time of Sister Merrill's favorite songs - after all, it's Mother's day, so I get to sing what I want, right? Then I got kicked out - so they sang all my favorite songs...without me... :)

At the end of Relief Society, just after we finished the closing prayer, the Branch clerk burst in and said (translated), "Wait, wait! We want to tell you all that you're way more special than just one flower, you're all as special as a LOT of flowers!" And then all the men and YM came in with little bouquets of daisies for everyone. It was well done, and very cute.

Oh yeah, and the kids did a beautiful job of singing in Sacrament meeting. They cheesed it up in the most appropriate of ways to show their love for Mom, and I was most impressed. I didn't cry, but I did smile a really, really big smile!

So, Happy Mother's day, gals. Even (especially) those of you who aren't moms in the traditional sense.