Mother's Day Thoughts

First off, I hope all the Mother's had a great Mother's Day. I've been catching up on blogs this morning (been up since 4:45am) and I feel prompted to share my thoughts regarding certain holidays.

This is probably the first year that I haven't made the mistake of going into Mother's Day with "great expectations". I am not saying that my hubby isn't awesome but I am saying that my expectations have been so high in the past that I didn't truly appreciate all of the effort that my family put into the little things that made the day special.

Last year Corey and I got into an argument on Mother's Day because he didn't make me feel special all day, every second of the day. Sure he took me to Panera for breakfast, bought me "dead" flowers (not his fault, he tried), got me a card and chocolate covered strawberries, cooked dinner, cleaned up and let me relax all day. This wasn't enough for me though because I had seen the credit card statement a few days earlier and saw a charge to Tiffany's so all day I was waiting for my little blue box. By the end of the day when it didn't show up I was livid. I didn't let on that I knew about the Tiffany's gift, I just pouted, made him feel bad and told him he really should be giving me presents on Mother's Day to express his love to me for being the mother of his children. Of course, he went off and put me in my place and then I ended up feeling bad for being so ungrateful.

This year I decided to work on my grateful attitude. First off I prayed that Mother's Day would be a good day and that my expectations of the day wouldn't be "over the top" and that I would appreciate the thougthfullness that my family put into the day. So my Mother's Day started Friday with chocolate covered strawberries from The Candy Factory! My family took me to Heaven Scent donuts before church on Sunday, the girls picked out a Happy Birthday Card for me (evidently Corey tried to get them to pick out a MD card but they insisted on the card with a cute dog on the front). After church Corey grilled for the family and cleaned up afterward, I took a nap and we watched Bride Wars. I had two requests for the day, that the girls and Corey clean up and organize the playroom and that Corey hang pictures up for me for Joel and in our bedroom. I almost lost it during the playroom cleaning up but for the most part I maintained my composure and Corey promised to hang my pictures one day this week without complaining. I only played the "Mother's Day" card a couple of times with the girls when they wanted to watch Disney Channel, I made them watch Bride Wars instead.

I truly feel that Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day are completely overrated Hallmark and jewelry store holidays. In fact the commercials and ads irritate me so much during these holidays. If the only time you can think about your parents or significant other is on these "obligatory" holidays then I feel bad for the receiver. I certainly wouldn't want a gift because someone felt obligated to give me one. Sure, we recognize and honor our parents with a small token of our appreciation for them on these days but we also honor them on the "non-obligatory" days of the year as well. I'm sure our phone calls, visits, cards, and gifts mean more to them when they are not expecting it then when we are forced by the pressure of the day to do something (let me clarify to our mom's real quick that we did put a lot of thought into your MD gifts to make them special for you and we were happy to honor all of you).

So if your Mother's Day wasn't all that you wanted it to be and more I just encourage you to be thankful for what your husband and kids do for you all the other days of the year to make you feel special. It's the little things that are done out of love for you on an ongoing basis that count.

PS - For all of those inquiring minds, I did end up getting my little blue box about 3 weeks later last year on our 10th Wedding Anniversary.