25 Weeks. It's like pizza tables.

Happy Mother's Day!  It was pretty exciting to be on the receiving end of that phrase now.  I got the mom discount at Ghengis Grill today.  Half off my (and the babies') meal.  SCORE!  I even got purple flowers at school on Friday from the girls (& Barry).  One of my students said, "Those flowers are from your babies?  Well, that was generous of them."  An unexpected highlight of my week was parking in the new and expectant mother parking space at HyVee, which is grocery store for all you non-Iowans.  I was going to take a picture, but to my dismay, my camera was in my school bag instead of my purse.  That's when I realized that most people would not take a picture of their car parked in the expectant mother spot.

It reminded me of last week, when I was helping at school for Title One Reading & Math night.  Some of the other teachers and principal opened up pizza boxes to serve to the kids and parents.  I exclaimed, "Oooooooh!  Pizza tables!"  Each pizza had one of those little white tables in the middle to keep the box from squishing the pizza.  I had tons of them as a kid and haven't seen them in years.  The principal started laughing and told me it's a good quality have - to like simple things.  I've been thinking about that a lot lately.  I do like simple things.   I think it is because when they are all added up, those are usually the things that matter most.

This mother's day, think about the time you've had with your mom.  Most of our favorite memories are not a big event or grand vacation, they are just simple things.  I remember having a picnic in the living room one night for supper when I was little and my mom bringing in a tray filled with cheese, crackers, and fruit.  I remember shopping for wallpaper and decorations for my room and my mom let every decision be completely mine even though I was only 6 or 7 years old.  I remember dreaming up what I wanted on my birthday cake every year and my mom finding a way to help me make it.  I remember that my brother and I never asked for anything from the store because we had learned early on that the answer was always no.  Then one day my mom said, "You know what?  I think you should pick out a new coloring book because you are a great kid and I want to do that for you."  I remember when I was in figure skating, plays, and piano, no matter how much talent I lacked and how many mistakes I made, my mom would claim to "not notice" and think it was the greatest performance yet.

It's like pizza tables.  I think the joy of being a mom comes in the everyday, simple acts of love moms and their kids share.  It's buying a coloring book just because and dandelions in a plastic cup sitting on your kitchen counter.  Keep growing, girls!  We've got a lot of simple things to do together!

About 3 more months to go!