Mother’s Day

First off, two reading recommendations.

Can anyone speak truth into a day like Mother’s Day more honestly than a woman?!?!  I just don’t know.  Ha.  This day is a mixed bag of emotions for so many, many people.  THIS article by Shannan is crazy good.  Big hard lovely truths surrounding such a day.

I read this on Julie’s IG and just nodded my head in agreeance.  This day is not just for women who have carried and birthed children.  It reaches far, far beyond that.

“To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you
To those who lost a child this year – we mourn with you
To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stains – we appreciate you
To those who experienced loss this year through miscarriage, failed adoptions, or running away—we mourn with you
To those who walk the hard path of infertility, fraught with pokes, prods, tears, and disappointment – we walk with you. Forgive us when we say foolish things. We don’t mean to make this harder than it is.
To those who are foster moms, mentor moms, and spiritual moms – we need you
To those who have warm and close relationships with your children – we celebrate with you
To those who have disappointment, heart ache, and distance with your children – we sit with you
To those who lost their mothers this year – we grieve with you
To those who experienced abuse at the hands of your own mother – we acknowledge your experience
To those who lived through driving tests, medical tests, and the overall testing of motherhood – we are better for having you in our midst
To those who have aborted children, we remember them and you on this day
To those who are single and long to be married and mothering your own children, we mourn that life has not turned out the way you longed for it to be
To those who step-parent, we walk with you on these complex paths
To those who envisioned lavishing love on grandchildren, yet that dream is not to be, we grieve with you
To those who will have emptier nests in the upcoming year – we grieve and rejoice with you
And to those who are pregnant with new life, both expected and surprising –we anticipate with you
This Mother’s Day, we walk with you. Mothering is not for the faint of heart and we have real warriors in our midst. We remember you.”

Yes, yes, yes!

 We pretty much Mother’s Day-ed all weekend long.  Saturday morning I kicked things off with a solo workout and then Kroger for the purchasing of flowers only.  Not one grocery item.  Give me all the flowers.

That afternoon we partied at the cemetery…it’s just what we do.  I know she’s not there, but it’s a sweet tradition for me and our family to honor what an amazing mom and Grammy she was.  There were Funfetti cupcakes, flowers in a maraschino cherry jar and a rousing game of hide-and-seek around and behind headstones by the Kelley kids.  I always cringe thinking about someone falling.  Eeeh.  While there Everett snagged a cute little flag from someone’s grave and proceeded to take it for his own.  We did make him leave it, but unsure we were accurate in it’s placement.  Alas.

We also stopped and bought flowers in honor of our birth mamas to plant in our backyard.  Lots of people do different things…release balloons, write letters, give in their honor, etc etc  We let each of our kids pick out the flower of their choice for their birth mom and then we plant them in our yard.  Days like these can bring up all kinds of feelings for children with hard stories.  I always want to make sure we acknowledge not only their incredibly, invaluable birth families, but also their own little feelings and emotions.

That night we celebrated with the Carman’s.  Mother’s Day always felt extra wonky for me when we were waiting on kiddos to come home.  Throw in a heart kiddo and obviously there’s this feeling of, “We cannot get there quick enough”.  The kids ran wild and there we’re sodas and hot dogs and cookies and tater tots and a tasty rose wine.  We also “taught” Josh and Brooke how to play mahjong.  And by “taught” I mean we only accidentally made up one fake rule, but Andy and Becky told us the next day they thought that was pretty impressive.  Win.

At the end of the night there were a slew of empty soda and Capri Suns in our yard, an upside down hot dog by our front door and a bunch of happy hearts.  We decided next year we’ll celebrate again…no matter what.

Sunday we celebrated with Josh’s mom and family.  I did crack up that before I even got out of bed Shuai accidentally hit me in the eye with a 32oz water bottle.  Forget breakfast in bed, more like icepack in bed.

  At the Kelley’s there we’re BBQ nachos and smoked chicken legs and cornbread muffins and homemade Oreo ice-cream.  We talked Kelley clan vacation plans and a pretty intense game of 4 Square broke out.

It was great to be together.  That night random dinner items were consumed just prior to bedtime.  And before sending everyone off to bed I did make sure to beat them all in 4 Square lest they forget their Mom dominates.  One day they’ll start to beat me, but until then…I shall rule our 4 Square games with an iron kickball.  Muhuhahahaha.  We read one book and off everyone went.  At the end of the day I knew what I always know, I’m the luckiest mama in the world.

Hope everyone had a decent weekend and no matter what it was full of things like love and encouragement and grace.

Oh, almost forgot the most exciting part of the weekend…in honor of Mother’s Day…and my one and only request…Josh Kelley got Instagram.  It was a Mother’s Day miracle.

Happy Monday!

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