Mom's Day

Tomorrow is my day. And many other wonderful ladies' day. It's the celebration of giving birth. Of agreeing, even though you don't realize it at the time, to being counselor, banker, accountant, cook, organizer, sympathetic listener, nagger, worrier, referee, tidier, (sometimes) yeller, (sometimes) best friend, (sometimes) mortal enemy. Mom. A three letter word for a whole lot of stuff.

My gift was a trip to Home Depot where we purchased a new bougainvillea plant to replace the boug we had that died a couple winters ago. It's been cut back regularly as we worked on taking it out - they are not easy to work with (as you know) because they have huge thorns. But my knight in shining armor hubby managed to get the dead plant finally out of the ground and the old, falling down trellis it was entwined with also down and tossed away. The new boug will hopefully go in tomorrow. We had to drag H. along with us to HD because it occurred to me that we had a lot of cash loaded on his Visa Buxx card still from Hawaii - and that isn't HIS money. It's our money we've loaded on his card to allow some Independence in terms of his vacation shopping. So we took him with us and used some of that already paid for $$ to pay for my 'gifts'. Two big bags of potting soil, 3 six packs of pansies and 3 other pansy-like spreading potted plants and we were home. After a Starbucks drive through stop. So good. I miss my iced teas.

The replacement of the boug on Mother's Day seems fitting since we planted the original plant in honor of my mom - bougs were one of her favorites. Our pool was designed around this particular plant - it was the only plant in the yard we told the pool designer we absolutely didn't want to lose. And it was a full, lush beautiful plant that bloomed year round - until a harsh winter did it in. We will cover this one. It is a beautiful pink and should (hopefully) take off and grow like crazy.

Tomorrow, our church is doing a 2nd special collection for a local charity that is finishing a long-term building project and needs funding to cover the last expenses. We are asked to contribute whatever we can - maybe 10% of our 'economic stimulus' payment - which for us would be less than $24 - AND we don't have it yet. So we are making a donation in honor of our mom's that is equal to one dollar for every year they lived - J's mom lived to be 76. Mine lived to be 75. They died within five months of each other - my mom on May 24, 2000, and J's mom on October 26, 2000. So we'll make a donation of $151. An odd amount - but it's OK. A dollar for each year seems a pittance for all they did for us. And for their families. But it'll help a very worthy cause in our town and will help ease the pain we both have on Mother's Day since they died. It's just not the same, no matter how much you think it will be. It's not the amount that matters. It's the reason for the amount. In memory and honor of our mom's. Two amazing ladies.

I gave up my weekly stint at the coffee kart. I just decided that a weekly commitment that takes up 1/2 of my two short days 'off' - many of which are not exactly days off since I'm working frequently on the weekends, either actually going into my office or bringing work home - is not something I want to do. I can do it. I just don't want to. Getting older makes it easier to put 'me' first and to just learn to say 'no'. Or in this case 'I love doing it, but never would have signed up if I'd realized it was an every week think, so thanks for wanting me to work every weekend but no, I won't'. Kind of like that, only nicer. I am on the list of 'backup' when they need help. And I'm fine with that plan. Glad to have more flexibility. J. and B. are playing tomorrow and H. is doing the A/V slides at the 11AM service. And as soon as we're done at church, we're going out for brunch. Probably IHOP 'cuz that's where we usually go for 'breakfast'. We haven't done a breakfast out in a long time. Looking forward to it.

Then running a few errands and coming home to work on the house. And to work on the 'work' stuff I brought home - laptop and two big projects to make progress on were brought home yesterday afternoon.

Work is going OK. Better, in some ways. Same in others. I am trying a 'new' approach and learning to not care so much about things that honestly don't matter. The work matters. The people are just people. I'm good at the job and it's close to home. AND it pays well and has far more potential for future earnings than other possible jobs. Add all those things together, remind myself that I have two sons heading to college and a husband who's less than 8 years away from retirement and you tend to 'get' to the point I'm at - stay. It's a good job doing good work. It's hard, it's stressful, it's exhausting - but I'm good at it. Nothing is forever. But for now, this is where I am.

Time to head upstairs to the nightly 'grooming of the cats'. Sound like a ritual and it's becoming a bit like that. They have been getting 'matted fur' patches so I finally broke down and purchased some 'grooming' tools. They seem to be helping - they get at the 'under fur' - the brush I've been using just gets the 'top fur' and that's not enough. I didn't realize these cats are sort of 'long hair' but they are apparently, and my brushing has been completely inadequate. The new tools get down to the fur under the top coat and pull it out. Tons and tons and TONS of it. And because the tools are metal, the hair doesn't 'stick' to them - it flies everywhere. EVERYWHERE. I keep cat bath towels (like baby wipes) handy and use those to wipe down both cats first (they really like it!) to get their fur a bit damp and then brush - and use the wipes to 'catch' the fur off the tool. It's working. It's very time consuming but they are already looking a lot better and seem 'more comfortable'. Poor babies. Never knew what I was doing wasn't enough.

Happy Mom's Day to all the moms out there. If you're not a mom yet, it's the toughest job you'll ever love.