And today arrived. And today started out the same and ended entirely different. Today I got breakfast in bed.
A few things didn't make it into this picture: the heart shaped pancakes and the Reese's Peanut Butter toast (courtesy of Jeffrey). And as you can see I have enough food to feed an army. So we sat on my bed and enjoyed breakfast, I opened my cards and my gift and had a morning with my kids.
And then my Mother's Day became unlike any other I have had. After a leisurely breakfast, Mother's Day ended. And we got ourselves together and took ourselves outside. The rest of my day was spent mowing the lawn (which by now had turned into a forest), finding a garden in and amongst the trees, clipping, trimming and clawing my way to a back yard that can actually suitably be called a backyard.
To give you some perspective. When we moved in here in November, there was no lawn mower. So our grass had not been mowed since last summer. I'm sure you can imagine the length it was. To give you a concept, each mowed strip you make too for runs over it before it was a suitable length. So this year, my Mother's Day was anything but relaxing. In fact it was so much work that by the end of it you could not tell where the grass ended and my feet began. But it was one of the best Mother's Day I have had!!!!
Let me explain. Today was different for me for a number of reasons. First, Ron was here which contributed to a sense of "family" Now, I know that many of you will state or believe or think that a family is what you make it and in this day and age, a family doe not necessarily need two parents together. And for the Christians reading this, who consider that for a broken family with an absent father, the easy answer is that God will show up and be father. Well, I am beginning to understand what that means, and it in no way means the pat answers that we as Christians think it means.. Many time it is told to a single mother that God will be Father to the kids and husband to the mom. I think that that is our nice Christian pat answer for something we don't know how to process. I also think that it is a way out for a lot of Christians who are uncomfortable with the idea of single parenthood. Because I can be the first to attest, God has never showed up to mow my lawn or change my tires. That is a different post though, I admit, I digress.
Back to today. It was a "work day." But it was the best Mother's Day. Why? Because we were all here. Ron, myself and the kids. We were all working to a common goal. Beautifying our home and the yard. Formulating a back yard, a garden together. We were a community, a family, working to something we all want to have, that we will all enjoy. Working together, with games and jokes and breaks and sweat and tears (there were some fights). But we all were together, in our yard, working hard for something that we will all enjoy. It felt like a home. It felt like a family. And for a single Mom, who remains guilt ridden that she destroyed any sense of family for her kids,, it was the best gift I could ever receive, or give.
For today, we were not a single mom with kids ( insert pity, misunderstanding, guilt and zero compassion here).......
Today, on Mother's Day, we were family!!!!!!!!!!!!!
