Mother's Day 2007

Today couldn't have been any more perfect! First of all, the weather was incredible: sunny, in the 60s, bright blue sky, with a cool breeze. After church, I came home to a tiny box of chocolate mice from L.A. Burdick's and a card decorated by R, and A made us our usual Sunday pancakes (mine with chocolate sauce) and bacon. Then we headed to Drumlin Farm for the morning. It was exactly what I wanted to do. We went hiking on some of the trails and found this clearing at the top of a hill. There was an incredible view from there of miles and miles of trees and Mount Wachusett, without any signs of highways or houses or civilization. Breathtaking. A and R climbed up a huge rock. We took the trails back to the farm to check out some of the animals.


Last year, R didn't pay much attention to any of the animals, but this time he was intrigued. We spent a lot of time looking at the birds - a crow, pheasant, turkey vulture, several hawks, and then the owls. I tried not to react too much when we discovered that it was lunchtime for the birds -- a few of them were tearing, shredding, and eating mice and rats. R just wanted to know what they were doing; he didn't seem scared or grossed out by it at all. He wasn't as thrilled by the farm animals. The lambs and kids were running around the pastures, and that freaked him out a little bit. I had to reassure him that the animals were behind fences and couldn't get out. He loved the tractor/hay ride.

We headed home, had popsicles outside, then I read him a story and put him down for a nap. I also put me down for a nap because he insisted that I sleep with him, and my "just for a minute" became two hours when I dozed off. But I can't think of anything nicer to do on Mother's Day than snuggle with my precious boy. :-)

In the afternoon, we went to a local nursery to pick up some perennials. I got two echinacea/coneflower plants for the back yard and two bleeding hearts for the front yard. (We'll see how they do. Between the lawn grubs and the roots from all of our bushes, it's very difficult for anything to grow in our yard, as I've discovered through heartbreak and frustration. The lawn grubs will soon be history, though, as we finally decided to have someone treat our lawn. *sigh* I hate chemicals, but our lawn really is horrible and it's only going to get worse.) Anyway, I'm so impressed and excited by R and how much interest he has in the things that interest A and me. Yesterday, he was fantastic at the antiques show (more on that tomorrow), and today he was exploring all the different plants and asking questions about them. When we got home, we played trains for awhile in his room and painted a wooden birdhouse, but then he helped me plant the echinacea. We dug the holes together, placed the plants, threw the dirt back in, and watered the plants. It makes me so happy to do these things with him.


Meanwhile, A had fired up the grill and made us a delicious dinner of grilled venison, corn on the cob, and roasted potatoes and broccoli. I am so lucky to be married to someone who went to cooking school! Our meal sounds simple, but A makes the most incredible meat rubs, and he doused the potatoes and broccoli with olive oil, a little butter, and herbs from our garden last year. And, miracle of miracles, we got R to try the potatoes! (He has never liked potatoes, except in the greasy french fry variety.) He took a few bites and admitted he liked it, but said he was all done. Hey, we were thrilled because he at least tried it, which has been such a struggle in recent months.

After dinner, R alternated between strumming his guitar and blowing on his flute, and then we had a lovely all-family tickle fight.

Thank you, Lord, for this amazing day! Thank you for my boys and for the time we have to spend together. Thank you that there are still places left where we can just see the Earth's beauty without evidence of our mark on it. Bless all the moms in my life, especially Mom - who has taught me everything about love - and Johanna - who manages to laugh and have fun with her boys even in the most challenging and stressful times. Amen.