Mulling Over Mother’s Day

It’s incumbent upon a mom blogger like myself to write something pegged to . It should be easy to compose, the bread and butter of the trade, an annual slam-dunk kind of thing. And yet I’m doing some head-scratching to come up with an idea this year.

So, as someone who fancies herself able to make lemons out of lemonade, I decided to think on why I don’t have much to say on the topic and then write about that. After mulling it over for a while, it has come down to this: I don’t have much to say about Mother’s Day because I don’t get especially jazzed about the idea that one day is all I get to both savor my mom status and to feel that my family is grateful that I’m around.

It’s not that I won’t be tickled by whatever cute handmade gift the kids have been working on in their classes at school. I’m still smiling to I think about how last May, Lucy walked around randomly shouting, “Mom, Happy Mothers!” leaving out the word “day” every time. And I’m no fool - of course I’ll gladly accept any gifts or meals eaten out or the opportunity to sleep in as organized by my husband on behalf of our

Now here’s where I’ll sound corny: For me, the spirit of Mother’s Day is something I’m trying very hard to live every day. I’m doing my best to be grateful for my family and to know that they are grateful for me, even when the kids are at their most annoying, and that happens at least briefly on a daily basis now that my son is about to officially usher in “the terrible twos.” I’m making an effort to pause and take a deep breath for the flashes of simple happiness the kids bring me, from when I get to laugh along with Lucy when she throws her head back and laughs at a silly joke, to when Isaac rests his head on my shoulder as he settles down with me in the rocking chair in his room at bedtime.

So instead of just one day, Mother’s Day for me is something more fluid. It’s how I will spontaneously think of my own mom when I inadvertently say something to my kids that she used to say to me, or when I tuck Lucy in under the quilt my mom made for me 27 years ago. But if it makes the rest of my family happy to treat me in the name of Mother’s Day, I’ll most definitely accept their generosity in the form of chocolate or fancy hand lotion I won’t buy for myself, or a new book or CD or a gift card, as long as they keep the daily laughs and bedtime snuggles coming.