I usually dread Mother’s Day. My first three were, well, pretty rough. Today changed that…and I’m happy about the change!

Wow. We fit a ton of stuff in. Holy mackerel! Ellie was up at the crack of dawn as usual, and ready for me to get her dressed and do an art project. I explained to her that most families were celebrating Mother’s Day and that Daddy was going to help her this morning…to my surprise this actually worked, and they were off to breakfast and errand running. I stayed in bed for a bit, but I’m one of those people who can’t get back to sleep once we’re awake…sucks, but hey, if I haven’t learned to live with it by now, I doubt I ever will!

When they got back, Ellie presented me with an absolutely adorable card that she had addressed and signed herself – my first true card of its kind. Nothing like her homemade, heartfelt script to melt my heart (and apparently she picked out the card herself)! Jeffrey gave me a gift card to Michael’s – which I’ll be using for cake decorating supplies, I’m quite sure.

Then it was time to get things ready for the late lunch we had planned with my brother and his wife who is expecting…I had settled on Thai Steak Salad, and had set the steak to marinating last night.  Jeffrey figured out someway to get Ellie detached from my hip, and I got to setting the table outside.  The weather has been absolutely spectacular, and the warmth took lunch outside.  It reached 88ºF today.  I hadn’t really planned on hosting lunch, so I was flying by the seat of my pants when it came to setting the table…ended up with a table cloth and chargers that I found on clearance last year at TJ Maxx, and some candle holders I had bought at Marshalls for $5.  The glass votives had broken, so I had to get inventive when it came to the glass inserts.  Nothing seemed to fit right, so I had to adapt a few things I had on hand…

I made a few napkin holders to add a variety of color (simply glued some sequined ribbon into an approximate size), and stuck with “simple” as a theme.

Initially I was going to leave everything just subtle and muted, but after one last dash downstairs for a touch of glue on the flower “vases,” the coffee filters from the Easter Party caught my eye…they were just the touch of color that I needed!

I can’t say it’s my favorite tablescape, but for 15 minutes, it wasn’t that bad…

Lunch was a yummy Thai Steak Salad, which was perfect for the weather…I couldn’t imagine baking, roasting, or using the stove on a day like today…the salad was easy to prepare in advance, and was perfectly refreshing and light .

Pina Coladas (virgin for Jeffrey and Suzie) were the perfect accent for the freshness of the salad, and added a flare of celebration to the day. Let me be clear…I rarely induldge in a Pina Colada, despite the fact that it’s such delicious concoction.  They’re just normally so damn fattening.  This month, however, Cooking Light had a Recipe Makeover for a Pina Colada that brought the calorie count down from somewhere in the mid 400s  to 178! Still not exactly a diet beverage, but certainly something I could splurge on!  On top of that, I think I may like the remake better than a real pina colada…their recipe cut the sweetness factor exponentially!  I’ll definitely be making them again this summer!

Once lunch was over, the boys and Ellie were off to fish down at the lake, and Suzie and I went through Ellie’s old baby clothes.  There were five storage bins of her hand-me downs that I’d been avoiding for ages.  Suzie managed to head home with two boxes, the Goodwill will get one, and I kept two more (some of the clothes I just couldn’t bring myself to part with).  I’m so excited to welcome their new little one!

Once Colin and Suzie left, the day was wrapping up, but didn’t end before Ellie convinced me that the pool wasn’t too cold to swim in (72º is WAAAAAAAY too cold for me personally – but I’m not a 3 year old with a passion for swimming). She spent an hour or so in and out of the pool, more often then not dragging “her” dog Jax in as well.

After we showered, we spent some good family time around the fire pit roasting marshmallows and chomping on S’mores.

Pretty much an awesome Mother’s Day if you ask me ——– and totally unexpected.

 

I still haven’t caught up on my sleep…Ellie has been so insanely clingy the last few weeks, that I can’t even go pee without her having a meltdown.  I remember similar days with Rocco – “MELISSSSSSSA,” he would scream. With him, I thought it was cute; but for whatever reason, it ain’t so cute coming from my own kid.  Good lord, by the way she pushes anyone other than Mommy aside, you’d think they were all beating her, and I was giving her candy every two minutes.

She has never been a good sleeper…her little brain never stops, and all night, every night, she wakes me up with her hollering and going on.  Often times it’s just her dreaming, but more often then not, even if it is just a dream, she wakes herself up and needs comforting – or WANTS comforting.  The lack of sleep is one of the biggest reasons why we haven’t even begun to discuss having another child.  I’m a total raging you-know-what at least a few days a week just simply because I don’t sleep…..ever.

All that to say, our morning began as customary at 6 am.

“MOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMY!!!!!!!”

“Ellie, it’s still sleeping time!”

“No it’s not; it’s LIGHT OUT!!!!!!” Her little voice screeched and wailed. “I NEEEED MY MOMMY!!!!!” She continued.

I rolled over and looked at Jeffrey who was either still sound asleep or pretending to be….

“Babe?!?!? Can’t you get her.”

“I’m getting up,” his eyes were still closed, the pillow was over his head and the covers tucked neatly under his chin.

“Seriously?!?!”

“Ok, ok.” He got up and attempted to deal with the Princess and her tempestuous attempts at getting dressed.

Apparently her legs weren’t working, her tights were broken, her ballet leotard too small, and unable to hear anything other than what Mommy said, and even then it was only when Mommy said something she liked.

Her yelling and tantrums had woken me up enough that I was out of bed, already short-tempered and annoyed. The only consequence to these fits that works is my leaving the house and heading out for a “drive.” She hates that more than she hates time-outs or any other method of  “discipline.”

“Mommy’s going to go take a drive unless you put your tights on. 1………….2………..I’m putting my shoes on, Ellie………………2 and a half………….” Finally she let me put her tights on, and finish getting her ready.  I wish she would realize that if she would just accept the fact that the seams of her tights aren’t always going to lay perfectly flat against her toes, that her ballet shoes aren’t going to feel exactly the same every time, that a bit of water left on the outside of her sippy cup doesn’t mean that the cup is leaking. Let’s put this bluntly: I’m over it.

There. I feel better. It’s out. Sometimes having a spirited, smart, manipulative toddler just isn’t all that great. Aaaah. Relief. Sweet relief.

That being said, I love the crap out of this little girl.  Daddy did finally get her out of the house and to their usual Saturday morning breakfast at Denny’s.  They got to ballet class on time with her bun intact – and without any incidents.  While they were gone, I was able to go to Wilco and pick up my chile pepper plants, tomato plants and a few packs of seeds to keep Ellie occupied while I worked in the garden a bit.

The weather here has been absolutely spectacular.  It’s almost as if the weather is making up for last year’s horrendously late summer.  I’m not going to count my chickens before they hatch, and I’m certainly knocking on wood as I say this, but maybe the weather will stick around for a while………….one can hope!

Once Ellie and I were each back home, Jeffrey went about doing whatever it is he does, and Ellie and I headed outside to the garden.  We’re having my brother and his wife over tomorrow (it’ll be her first “mother’s day” – even if the baby hasn’t arrived yet), and I wanted to have some fresh blooms in the house.  We picked flowers, planted seeds, and just spent some good quality time together soaking up the sun.

Then it was inside to arrange them……the art of which she is quite opinionated about…

Oh……….and then there was the duck egg incident. Right. Yeah, that was fun. Here’s the deal.  The ducks, for whatever reason, have decided that our front yard is a great place to lay eggs. There were two nests, each full of 10 – 15 eggs each.  The first nest our dear dog Boots discovered and quickly devoured the apparently delicious treasure.  The second nest he didn’t discover until yesterday, and no amount of zapping from his collar could keep him away, so I decided to keep him inside. Well, today…………….I forgot about the nest, but he did not. So, spread out across our front lawn are 10 eggs – broken open with baby ducklings almost ready to hatch. It’s DISGUSTING….especially when you discover them by stepping on one. Yeah. Not fun.  I almost took a photograph of them, but decided that no one would ever want to see that. There are lines that even I won’t cross.

Several hours after the discovery of the broken eggs, Ellie and her Daddy went out fishing on the lake (successfully, I might add).  Ellie loves to fish, and has a new Barbie fishing pole with which she is learning how to cast…they had an absolute blast together.

Enjoying the bit of alone time that I had, I decided to take a quick walk around the lake…I was actually looking for some of the work that the beavers have been chipping away at…but the underbrush has hidden most of it.  I was very happy to discover yet another duck nest…with eggs that had yet to be touched by the Evil Boots. There is still hope for baby ducklings yet.

We ended the day with dinner by the fire pit, topped off with s’mores.  Sometimes, when I think of where I came from, I can hardly believe where I am now…and I’m grateful for every little bit.