happy mama day to myself

Today was Mother's Day.  It was certainly the most interesting so far.  First, Sunday holidays for moms & pastor's wives with little kids don't really go together.  Learning to manage 3 is still new and Sundays are hardest because Bran's usually out the door before we're even moving, which leaves me single-parenting the get ready and church time.  Usually I bribe them with donuts if there are no meltdowns and we're out the door in time, but I'd already used that yesterday to bribe good behavior while Brandon was gone for a 2-day missions trip training thing in Pitt.  (The first time it works, but trying it the second day in a row does not- they're already on to me, and then it's just wasted money and sugar without the payoff.  Somehow they manage a meltdown AND to make us late in the 20 second drive from Dunkins to church.)  Sundays are weird for us in general because it's kind of like having "bring your family to work day" once a week, but trying to celebrate mommy amidst all that is just humorous.
Secondly, we thought we'd outsmart the rest of the families of New Castle by heading home first for a few naps and down time before going out to eat, but that backfired on us.  Last year we did that and we had no wait time or crowds by then.  This year, it may have gone wrong with the location we chose.  We went with using a gift card we had, but it's kind of in the middle of no where so we still had an hour (plus) wait ...with 3 kids.  We haven't gone out to eat much with the littlest munchkin yet, so we were definitely not on top of our game.  I'm currently trying to block out memories, but it had something to do with Benjamin not listening to aaanything we said, Andrew waking up a sleeping Lily who then put on a great show for the restaurant patrons, forgetting my nursing cover, 300 trips to the bathroom with kids, and about 3 sentences exchanged between Brandon and I.  It's ok, a little Dairy Queen smoothed things over, and a husband handling both bath AND bed tonight ended the day on a good note.  I told Brandon that next year I'd like my Mother's Day gift to be for him to take the kids to lunch and for me to have my food delivered ..to my bed.  Is that wrong to celebrate mom day without your kids?  :)

(disclaimer: I am very sarcastic and have a bit of a love for the dramatic.  I do love my children, hope to never celebrate mom day without them while they're growing up, and actually- it was a pretty good day.  I got some sweet cards and gifts, spent time with wonderful friends at church, had plenty of opportunities to laugh... and then there's always the ice cream.  Oh, and right NOW there's a snoozing baby girl on my lap who I'm about to put in the bassinet for the night  ... because she sleeps THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!  Woo-hoo, Lily -- you win best gift this year, girlfriend.)

I love you my sweet family.
And mom, love you to the moon and back -- wish I could've been with you to celebrate you today.  No one deserves to be celebrated more than you!