Happy Mother's Day, Granberry!

 

My Mother’s Day started out with an early walk down a quiet dusty road. The sun was warm in the cool morning air. Maggie wasn’t all that interested so we headed back after half a mile. Coming in from the walk, Warren happily greeted me. “Happy Mother’s Day, Granberry!” Today was destined to be an especially nice one. Larry had flown in and would be spending my last week at Jan’s with me. That is rare.

After breakfast we headed out to church. It was Sunday School Recognition Day. Warren’s class sang 2 songs. I love watching children sing.  They belted out each “Hosanna! Alleluia!” with great enthusiasm and did a pretty good job with the rest of the song, even if my old ears could only pick up every few words.

Mike sings in the choir and is also a Sunday School teacher. Today he stood up to hand out certificates to all the kids in his class. We had taken up residence in the back row along with the other families of kids not likely to sit in rapt attention during the sermon and close to the escape route should Samantha decide she’d had ENOUGH and wanted OUT of there. When Mike stood up in the front of the church, Samantha spied him. “DA DA!!! DA DA!!!”  she called. All heads turned to watch as she vigorously waved to daddy. Of course we all beamed adoringly at our little girl.

 

Later, after church, Warren was playing on the porch. He brought in a big cardboard box that had come in the mail a few days before with some blueberry and strawberry plants. It was closed and he presented it to his mom. “What’s inside?” she asked. “It’s a surprise,” he said. “Should I be scared?” she asked him. “Is something going to jump out?” “Nope,” he grinned. Cautiously (with a twinkle in her eye) she opened the box and looked in. It was empty. She looked up at Warren. “It’s full of KISSES!!” he said delightedly and proceeded to plant dozens of kisses all over his mom.

Mother’s Day is the day we celebrate motherhood. And to me, that means basking in the memories of moments that make motherhood so special. It’s the moments when my kids came up to me and gave me a big hug saying Happy Mother’s Day.  Like these today.  Honestly, one of my favorites was the teabag taped into the paper teapot from my second grader. I love tea. It was perfect. There was also the afternoon spent sitting reading on the porch. And last year, it was the lunch my daughter took me to. This year I got a jar of homemade hand and foot sugar scrub in a beautiful jar. I can’t wait to use it.

The other night on the news it was reported that the average spent on Mother’s Day was $152.00. If that is the average I have to wonder, what is the upper number? I think there are a lot of families like ours that believe that less is more. All I know is that no $150.00 bracelet would mean as much as an empty box filled with kisses.

Happy Mother’s Day!