Happy Mother’s Day - Rewind

I was a little pre-occupied organizing our cross-country car trip around Mother’s Day, so I did not get to say anything about Mother’s Day.  Mother’s Day is a very important day.  You would not be who you are today without your mother—the person who nurtured you.  And your mother sacrificed a lot for you, so that you might grow to adulthood. 

It is too bad that I had to become a mother to realize how important this day is.  I know it was good to be nice to your mom on Mother’s Day and you should probably make her a nice handmade card or craft.  But, it’s really a shame that I didn’t make it a special day for my mom growing up.  That being said, I know what it’s like to be a kid on Mother’s Day and a mom on Mother’s Day, therefore, I know that getting to spend time hugging and loving your kids on Mother’s Day is the Mother’s Day gift.  I know that if I want Mother’s Day to be more special than that I just need to go ahead and make it the special day I want it to be. :-)

Every year my husband asks what I want for Mother’s Day and I say, “I want you to get up with the kids and make me a cup of coffee.”  The coffee is because I know that peace for sleep will not last long and I will need the coffee about a half hour after my husband goes to care for the kids.  So far, my request for a few more moments of rest and coffee have not been fulfilled.  Each year there has been some reason that it has not happened.  This year my husband went to help the Knights of Columbus with their Mother’s Day breakfast at the crack of dawn.  However, he did make coffee before he left and that was wonderful.

I woke up had coffee, dressed the kids for church, loaded them up, took them to Liturgy, my husband joined us, and then we had breakfast made by the Knights of Columbus.  It was great!

After the Sunday festivities, I called my mom to wish her a good day.  She informed me that my sister beat me to the well wishes.  “Sure, it’s easy for her to be first.  She doesn’t have three kids to dress for church at seven in the morning.” Wink, wink.  I sent my mom a cook book for the second year in a row. Cooking is my mom’s great gift.  So it is now a tradition that I will send her a new cook book each Mother’s Day.

A couple days before Mother’s Day my mom’s group had a Mother’s Day morning mass with the kids, followed by lunch.  It was great to go to mass and everyone's kids were being noisy and no one was staring.  The priest asked the kids to come to the altar and offer a prayer for the mothers and then they sang, “Happy Mother’s Day to You.”  It was precious.  I will treasure this moment.

Happy Mother’s Day to you. It is a special day just because you are a mother and not because someone else made it special for you.