The Real Mother's Day

So I'm hoping everyone who was going to get the flu in my family has gotten it. I know I sure did. The one day my husband was working abroad and I was on my death bed! I think my kids watched 7 hours of TV (not in a row, mind you, I made them do little jobs and write thank you notes that are well overdue in between... and yes, I had all four children home since the two in school were also still recovering). Needless to say I am not looking forward to cleaning my toilets. Too much information...sorry.

I thought I had recovered quite nicely, when it hit me again yesterday afternoon full-force. I was back to bed while my wonderful husband (who doesn't have much on his plate except for writing a dissertation and such) took the kids to the grocery store to give me peace and quiet and try to figure out what to have for dinner. The kids scrambled to gather their money since the dollar store is conveniently located next to the grocery store and somehow they haven't yet learned that dollar store toys break by the end of the week just in time for a new weekly allowance. Anyways, apparently two of my kids, upon entering the grocery store, had their sweet little hearts set on getting flowers for their sick Mommy. Mr. Man talked them down in price a bit, and they ended up paying most of the price, and used all of their money with nothing to spare for the coveted dollar store toys.

When they returned home, I was greeted with the beautiful arrangement pictured above. I laughed and cried. In "purging" for our move we have gotten rid of all our vases but one (which was full of paper-made flowers at the time) and so the kids creatively thought to use the blender. As long as nobody plugs it in to make flower smoothies, I think we'll be just fine. The real cincher too was the sacrifice of their money. Several months ago when we started "saving" for a house, we decided to stop doing weekly allowances as well so that each member of our family could sacrifice and help save. Since that time, they have counted their money frequently and always kept it locked up tightly. For them to spend what little money they have on flowers for me was such an incredible gesture... and brought so many of my gestures and actions into question.

For me, yesterday was the "real" mother's day. Since it wasn't designed and designated, nor demanded; their love and recognition of me and of motherhood was both sincere and priceless. Aren't I lucky to have flowers in a blender on my bedside table?