Happy Mother's Day!

Yes, I'm well aware of the fact that I have my holidays a little mixed up. The Fourth of July has been fairly uneventful for us and it has taken me a while to gather all my materials for my Mother's Day post so here it is, the 4th of July, and, yes, I am posting about Mother's Day. Get over it.

Mother's Day was a dream. Tad allowed me to get up early and leave the house to go to Matins while he got the whole crew dressed and ready for Divine Liturgy. It was a little slice of Heaven to be in church without all the wigglers, gigglers and whiners - even if it was just for half an hour or so. Tad managed to get all the children dressed and even had their hair combed and shoes tied. I was impressed. Not only that, I came home after church to a tidy, uncluttered house - the joy of that moment alone could have carried the day.

After Liturgy I was surprised by Ginny and Pani Chris with a little baby shower. Ginny had baked one of her wonderful cakes and there were presents for Tali - a beautiful, soft blanket and some jammies and clothes. The cake was a hoot. It had a topper on it of a pregnant woman with a cape - Super Mom! It was so nice to be treated to a shower after all these babies!

I got to rest and relax all day. The kids had picked out some presents and I began to realize one of the supreme advantages to having girls - they can help Dad pick out gifts for me. Tad had taken Betsy with him on a Mother's Day shopping trip. Then he warned me for several days ahead of time to just smile and say I love it. Thing is, it wasn't an act - I was truly thrilled with the things Betsy had picked out. She insisted on matching mom and baby nightgowns for Tali and me and then she picked out a beautiful bracelet - silver and dotted with little colored gems. It's truly beautiful and I've really enjoyed wearing it. I think Boo is going to be the shopper in the family...

One last Mother's Day bonus was something Ben worked to get for me. A friend had posted on our homeschool group about a Mother's Day essay contest and I made Ben enter it for a school project. The text of his essay follows:

My mom is a very busy person. She is the loving mother of ten children, not only is she mother to us but she homeschools us. Three of us are too young to be schooled and those little guys are busy. There is also another lady who lives with us with her little baby and sometimes my mom takes care of him too. My mom doesn't get away from all of the noise very often and she's kept busy almost all day. The mom job in our family is harder than keeping track of all the kids, because three of my siblings have disabilities and a bunch of us play sports. One of the ten kids I was talking about is not born yet and four of us are adopted. Everybody has a hero. My hero is my mom. Somehow my mom keeps track of us and manages to keep us fed. I am convinced that my mom is the best mom in the whole world. And that's why I think my mom deserves a Cloud Nine Message Getaway. My mom does so much for me I want to do something for her.

Thing is, his essay won me the big prize! I received a free massage and one month of group fitness classes from a local establishment. We had our picture taken for the local paper as well. Since I was still pregnant when I was awarded my prize, I have been saving my time at the club until I feel a bit more healed up from Tali's birth but I'm really looking forward to it! Thanks Ben and good job!!