Memorial Day

I don't know what Memorial Day means to all of you, but to me, it means manual labor. Growing up in the Lee household, 3-day weekends were only good for yard work. I don't know when I first began to dread school holidays, but I know I did. I wasn't even that good at yard work. I complained, I was hot, I complained some more, I was tired, I complained one more time, and usually my dad would dismiss me in frustration. If I was lucky, all of this would happen before noon. After that experience, you wouldn't think I would make my family work in the yard on a 3-day weekend, would you? You would think that I would say "Hey! Let's all go to Kings Dominion!" But no. Todays job was to plant roses in the front. We worked our kids pretty hard, too. Patch was the foreman and Mini-me got to use a shovel. Unfortunately, the shovel bonked her head twice, so she got laid off. Maybe by Independence Day she'll be reinstated and put to work again. Those roses aren't going to weed themselves...

The Day After

I tried to post yesterday. I really did. I came down to the computer and tried to write about mothers. And Mother's Day. It really didn't come out right. I love being a mom. I love staying at home. When I wrote about it, I sounded like I didn't like it. Huh. I really do. Really. Do. I even like being a stepmom. I am very comfortable with my role. I'm even comfortable with The Ex. We had some good chats on Saturday. She even wished me a Happy Mother's Day. She's never done that before.

In our house, we refer to the holiday as "Freakin' Mother's Day." That's because, in years past, the holiday seemed to implode around us. From floods to forgetting to locking keys in the car, it hasn't been a successful day. Refusing to accept another Freakin' Mother's Day, I took matters into my own hands. I went shopping for a few things I knew I wanted: two books (Nineteen Minutes and the new Elm Creek Quilts book), some fabric for a new quilt and the pattern, and a couple of pink screw drivers found on ebay. Saturday afternoon, I displayed the items on the bed, added some ribbon, scissors, and wrapping paper and opened Mommy's Store. I acted very surprised when I opened the gifts, because Mini-me and Patch didn't know I had bought them for myself. Mini-me was so excited to give me the screwdrivers. Curly even surprised me with a little something. He is going to join me for Jenny. It's so much easier to do it together. Watch out family, we are going to be hot in Sun Valley this summer.

Hope you had a Happy Freakin' Mother's Day. I sure did.