My Perfect Mother’s Day

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Last year for Mother’s Day, my husband (and two boys) gave me a generous gift certificate to a local spa, with enough credit to purchase an hour-long therapeutic massage and a pedicure. That gift certificate is still on my desk, waiting to be put to good use. Thankfully, it does not expire until 2021.

craft, children, handprint, flowers, artA spa day might make a perfect Mother’s Day. I now have a six-year-old son, a four-year-old son, and a four-month-old baby boy, so that massage, with emphasis on the neck on shoulders, sounds pretty good. However, my perfect Mother’s Day would be spent at home with my children under the following conditions:

  1. Casey, my six-year-old would wake up, watch one show on television, draw a picture of he and me riding our bikes, and he would write, “I love you, mom” at the top of the page and hand it to me with his beautiful shy smile that makes his blue eyes sparkle. We would then ride our bikes around the block a few times, with our yellow lab, Gunner, following along. Casey would be so excited to eat his sandwich and chips and carrots for lunch. And during quiet time, he would openly talk to me about what all he is learning in school and what games he plays with his friends on the playground.
  2. Caleb, my four-year-old would wake up after sleeping all night in his bed refreshed and full of joy. He would politely request milk and breakfast, and his sweet hands would rest on my face as he tells me how much he wants to marry me (this often happens). He would color with his brother and me, working on writing his name, saying “Look, mommy!” He would hop on his bike and traverse the neighborhood with us and would stop to pick either a flower-weed or a flower from a neighbor’s garden for me to wear in my hair. He would be so excited to eat his sandwich, chips, and fruit for lunch, and he would rest with a full belly and a smile on his face.
  3. That beautiful baby of mine would awake after sleeping a 10-hour stretch and smile and coo at me all day long.

While the boys and I enjoyed our morning of pure bliss and familial love, my husband would vacuum, clean up the kitchen, make the beds, and possibly do some yard work.

The evening would bring a homemade meal of my choice, and we would delight the kids with eating by candlelight. Maybe I would have a glass of white wine.

While I read stories to all the boys on the couch, and the dog slumbered at our feet, my husband would again clean the kitchen. Bedtime would be a breeze, because the two older boys would join me in prayer time and crawl under their covers with affirmations of their love for me and mine for them and fall peacefully to sleep with no lingering peeps.

My husband and I would marvel at our baby boy as he nursed to sleep – again for a ten-hour stretch, and then said husband would give me a therapeutic massage, saving us $75.

The perfect Mother’s Day. But perfection does not exist, you say? Alas, I’ll take another day of whining, tempers, hurried chores, and messy spills. Under one condition – that this day come with homemade lovelies made for me by my precious boys, for whom I am most grateful and humbled to celebrate Mother’s Day.